MMGM: The Humming Room, by Ellen Potter

On a balmy day in September, I was strolling down the lovely little main street of Clayton, New York, the breeze off the St. Lawrence River ruffling my baby's hair while the older girls held hands and skipped ahead with their cousins--who live a few miles outside of town. My writer brain was on--engines revved, full speed ahead. The Thousand Islands entranced me...the little nineteenth century buildings charmed me...I wanted to set a story there. My brain had already supplied half a dozen possible plots to fit the setting when I passed by the local historical society building. There in the window, tucked in between copies of those delightful paperback local histories, was a children's book. Its green and purple illustrated cover shouted out from the mass of black and white and sepia, begging me to buy it: THE HUMMING ROOM, by Ellen Potter. I would have, too, but for the unfortunate circumstance that I had forgotten to bring my purse with me. Still, I had to go inside and look...because I had heard wonderful things about the book, but I didn't know why it was in a little North Country New York historical society's shop.
I checked the acknowledgments page (of course), where I discovered that the book was set on one of the Thousand Islands. Oh well, I guess someone got to that setting idea before me...
Almost as soon as I got home, I checked the book out of the library and fell into a masterful story. THE HUMMING ROOM is a contemporary retelling of THE SECRET GARDEN, though it felt--like the original--timeless. As T. H. White said of another book, I love THE SECRET GARDEN "this side of idolatry," so I expected to be hyper-critical of any retelling. But Ellen Potter's version was stunning, classic and so beautifully told that I fell in love again.
And, for the record, I wouldn't have pulled off the setting half as well as she did... Islands... an abandoned, very spooky children's hospital (on an island!) turned mysterious mansion... secret doors, locked-up gardens... Just try to stop drooling and go find a copy of the book now! If you live in Upstate New York, there's a sweet little historical society shop that has several copies. :)