Drift House: The First Voyage by Dale Peck
Drift House: The First Voyage by Dale Peck, faculty, Creative Writing at The New School
Bloomsbury, 2006
Barnes & Noble: In the tradition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and A Wrinkle in Time comes the first book in an exciting fantasy series about three siblings’ adventures on the high sea—the Sea of Time, that is. After 9/11, Susan and her younger brothers, Charles and Murray, are sent to live with their uncle Farley in Canada. Uncle Farley’s house looks like a ship perched at the edge of the sea, but it’s not until a great flood comes that the house’s name—Drift House—starts to make sense. Floating aimlessly on the Sea of Time, the ship-like house begins to yield its many secrets—including a mural that seems to predict the future, a dumbwaiter that enables Murray to travel into the future and back again, and a parrot historian who’s also a gifted translator. But when a clan of diabolical mermaids trick the children and their uncle into helping them carry out a plan that will stop time forever, it will take all of Susan’s ingenuity—along with some help from a great whale, a band of pirates, and a magic carpet—to set things straight.