The Drift House: The First Voyage

by Dale Peck

Paperback, 2006

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Series

Drift House (1)

Genres

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Bloomsbury USA Childrens (2006), Edition: Reprint, 464 pages

Description

Sent to stay with their uncle in a ship-like home called Drift House, twelve-year-old Susan and her two younger stepbrothers embark on an unexpected adventure involving duplicitous mermaids, pirates, and an attempt to stop time forever.

User reviews

LibraryThing member pussreboots

The reviews I've read of Drift House by Dale Peck either ignore the World Trade Center destruction or gloss it over. Regardless, it is the grim starting point of the book and the loss of life is one of the dominant themes of the book. It is also a pirate tale full of derring-do and time travel.

The

book begins with Susan and her brothers, Charles and Murray, being driven to Canada from their home in Manhattan. Their mother wants them out of the city until she feels it is safe again for them to return. Although they never speak of the attacks in a direct manner, Susan, as the oldest, is well aware of what has happened. Their flight north, much like the evacuation of the children in WWII at the start of The Magic Bed Knob by Mary Norton, leaves the oldest children with a good sense of how much danger the remaining parents may very well be in.

Susan reminds me a lot of Wendy Darling in that she both wants adventure but also wants to protect her younger brothers. Where Wendy is brought on board to be the mother of Captain Hook's pirates, Susan, briefly gets to captain her own ship. She also has to save her brothers and uncle from some treacherous mermaids.

Susan is the brave sibling. Charles is the clever one. But Murray is extraordinary. He starts as just another annoying youngest sibbling but goes on to have the most amazing and sometimes heartbreaking growth as a character.

I listened to the audio version of the book, performed by Richard Poe. He brings the characters to life and there were times I had to pause the book when I was getting too emotionally caught up in the story.

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LibraryThing member bobcatbrarian

Overall, I was pretty disappointed and I'm still not sure if it was because of the reading or the book itself. While Richard Poe really truly is an excellent reader, his voice didn't seem to match the story at all. As I was listening, I couldn't help but feel like something was a little off. The

story itself seemed promising, but, like Drift House, it felt like it took an eternity to get anywhere. Despite a compulsion to finish it, I finally gave up about halfway through (and, for anyone who knows me, that's a long time). I may pick up the print version sometime, to read the end if nothing else.

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LibraryThing member escondidolibrary

After the September 11 terrorist attack in NYC, the three Oakenfeld children are sent to live with their uncle in Canada until their parents feel that New York is safe again. Uncle Farley lives in a huge boat-like mansion near the water. The children start to notice strange things about the house

and decide to investigate. This takes them on an adventure where they encounter mermaids, pirates, and talking animals and even travel through time!

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LibraryThing member delphica

(#39 in the 2005 book challenge)

I am trying very hard to avoid doing that thing where something is declared to be the Best Thing Ever, which sets up unrealistic expectations because then other people will think "eh, it's okay, although hardly the Best Thing Ever," but what I'm saying is that this

book is excellent. Three children are sent away from New York City after the terrorist attacks to live with an eccentric relative in a big, odd house in the country, which turns out to be their gateway into a magical world. That's setting off your bells, right? The author has said that his biggest influences were C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle, and he does a great job of hitting just the right amount of homage without being a knock off. If you like Lewis, L'Engle, and I would throw in Cooper as well, this book will be right up your alley. Also very good for Harry Potter fans who are looking for something in the same vein ... only instead of magic and a wizard school, we've got time travel and adventures on the high seas. Yes kids, there are pirates. Nothing dumbed down about the book at all. Total page-turner. It has some flaws, but they're mostly things like "this book was calling out for great endpaper illustrations, and it has plain endpapers."

Grade: A+
Recommended: To people who like children's fantasy/time travel novels, also people who like grown up fantasy/time travel novels who will sometimes read children's fantasy/time travel if they are particularly good, people who get a thrill from merely reading the words "Dawn Treader," people who like ships, people who like oxygen.

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LibraryThing member ReadingPenguin

This Book is a very fun adventure fantasy that reminded me a lot of the book Attica. 3 kids go to stay at their uncle's house... little do they know that it is acually a boat that sails the sea of time, and that the controls for it are broken! It leads to an amazing and exicting adventure. This is

a very fun book if you enjoy escaping with the charaters and entering new worlds! Highly recommended!

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LibraryThing member mckall08

I gave this an extra star b/c I'm an adult male. I suspect this might appeal to younger teens. It seemed to drag a bit in the middle. I only finished it b/c I had already gone through three-quarters of it.

LibraryThing member DragonFreak

Three siblings, Susan, Charles, and Murray, has to go to their Uncle Farley's house who lives at The Drift House. Uncle Farley is kind of weird. He studies the nature of time and hates electronic things especially TV. At first the kids were very apprehensive about staying here, but soon they find

really strange things about the house. For one thing, The Drift House is crooked, a mysterious person seems to be serving Uncle Farley, but clearly doesn't exist, a painting shows all of them on the house, and a small radio plays without being plugged in.

After Charles and Susan ditch Murray to find out the mysteries of the house, they get caught and lost Murray. They find him in the dumbwaiter and he seems to have knowledge of the future. Then mermaids come to The Drift House and beg Susan to help her save another mermaid Ula Lu La Lu who's lost and captured in the Sea of Time, the sea that transports them to any place or time that has or will ever exist. But sinister forces become apparent, and Susan Charles, and Murray are whisked into one great adventure.

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LibraryThing member satyridae

It starts right after 9/11 in NYC, but quickly moves into the territory of magic. Three children, Susan, Charles and Murray are adrift and at sea in more than one fashion. The ways they cope with the strange and unfathomable happenings, as well as Peck's wonderful writing style, kept me turning

pages well into the night. This book had me biting my lip trying to stay awake to finish one more page in the wee small hours, and when I finally gave up, it followed me into my dreams. I can't remember the last book that's made me so intensely a participant. The Drift House recaptures the spirit of some of my favorite books from childhood- the L'Engle books (can Charles Wallace Murray be far from the boys named Charles and Murray, one of whom is very scientific and one very wise?) in particular. The way Peck explains why events seem to be rushing so fast past us in these times is brilliant.

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