Of all the many books I have read about large families and their happy times in the summer, this is the best. Janet Gillespie takes us with her to her family place on the South Shore of Massachusetts to meet her oblivious mother and her minister father. He tries, unsuccessfully to maintain his clerical dignity as he cranks up the furnace or unclogs the ancient toilets in their cottage. We meet her fabulous Grandmother living in old-fashioned splendor up the hill with her spinster daughter and her child-like son, Tink. The adventures of the children splashing around in the Sound with their leaky boats or "beelining" through the back yards or bird watching on early foggy mornings haul us in and will not let us go. AND it is hilariously funny! One of my very favorite books! ( )