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What’s on the library shelves

By Kris Lomedico

As a child I read a book about two cousins who find a forgotten lake resort of 19th century villas. They also discover the sole inhabitants, an eccentric and elderly brother and sister, who live and dress in decidedly old fashioned ways beside the boggy shores of their former summer home.  Exploring Gone-Away Lake (Elizabeth Enright, J fiction) and its dusty treasures takes all blissful summer long and a strong affectionate bond forms between the children and their new-found mentors, “Aunt” Minniehaha and “Uncle” Pindar. 

I loved exploring old houses and always remembered this satisfying and fascinating story. Now available on CD is Return to Gone-Away (read by Colleen Delany), which is perhaps more interesting to grown-ups. The cousins, Portia and Julian, return the following summer after Portia’s parents buy the imposing vine-covered Villa Caprice, complete with a secret safe and a suit of armor. 

The focus on uncovering antiques and refurbishing old homes might cause serious eye rolling for today’s young listeners, though Delany keeps the narration interesting. Listening brought back the 1950s, a time that seemed to revere the past and it’s treasures, habits, and formalities, and fostered a kindly respect for “old-timers.”

Jump up and dance to The Creepy Crawly Calypso! (picture book on CD)  Author Tony Langham explains all the typical calypso band instruments and Debbie Harter colorfully illustrates the insects who play them: the spider banging on steel drums, the butterflies on their accordions, etc. Best of all: the bouncy CD where all the instruments play by turn, then altogether. The granddaughter (as she calls herself) and I listened and danced and sang to it over and over and over.

Sing along to another neat picture book and CD combo by former Beach Boy, Alan Jardine, on Sloop John B: A Pirate’s Tale.  Richly colored full page illustrations by Jimmy Pickering depict a boy and his grandfather fending off pirates, as “around Nassau town they do roam.” Be ready to join in the chorus. 

Norman Tuttle on the Last Frontier (Teen fiction) by Tom Bodett. Norman’s a normal confused teenage boy, growing up in Alaska, and messing up a lot. His desperate parents send him to a farm in Oregon where firm loving friends and lots of hard work help him mature. Then at a Seattle stop over returning home, Norman messes up again, but by now he realizes that messes are part of life, to be confessed and then to carry on, wiser if poorer. And he just may have found his long lost Uncle Oliver. You can practically hear Tom Bodett’s voice (Motel 6), and the whole story can be heard on Tom Bodett’s American Odyssey (AF tape).

That’s it. AF Turquoise Girl by Aimee Thurlo was too tedious, Withering Height, by Dorothy Cannell too cleverly fluffy, but maybe I just wasn’t in the mood. 

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