Elizabeth Enright

Portia and her cousin Julian discover adventure in a hidden colony of forgotten summer houses on the shores of a swampy lake.

The Melendy family moves to a house in the country where a secret room, a cupola, a stable, and a book provide Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver with adventures far different from the city life to which they are accustomed.

A summer that promises to be eventful turns into something extra special when the four Melendy children become friends with the orphaned Mark Heron.

Eleven-year-old Portia and her family return with cousin Julian to the site they visited the previous summer, this time to take possession of a large Victorian house, unoccupied for fifty years and full of treasures and secrets.