When their parents decide New York has become dangerous, Susan, Charles, and Murray Oakenfeld are sent to stay with their eccentric uncle Farley up in Canada. There, they discover the strange sanctuary that is Drift House, a ramshackle old place situated on the Bay of Eternity, built so that it looks as if it literally washed ashore. In this strange crooked house, mysteries abound. There’s Uncle Farley, of course, and his parrot President Wilson, and a housekeeper named Mrs. Applewhite (or is it Applethwaite?) who no one ever sees. Things get stranger after they’ve been there a little while, especially after the entire house drifts out to sea, proving that it’s definitely more than it seems. For Drift House is a transtemporal vessel, capable of navigating the time-tossed waters of the unique Sea of Time, and now the Oakenfeld children and their uncle are at the mercy of the tides, just in time to begin a grand adventure.

Coerced by the local mermaids into helping to foil the kidnap plot of some unsavory pirates, the Oakenfeld children are quickly drawn into an insidious scheme to close the Great Drain of the Sea of Time itself, an action which would have grave consequences for the flow of time and the cycle of life and death. Now Susan and her brothers have to exercise their wits and cunning if they want to get home alive. Can Susan pull off an impersonation as the infamous pirate, Pierre Marin? Can Charles get over his resentment and feelings of inadequacy? What’s going on with Murray? And how does the dodo fit in? The answers are all here.

I found Drift House: The First Voyage to be a little slow-going at first, taking time to really get up to speed. And while any adventure involving pirates, mermaids, and a giant whale is bound to be exciting, I thought the book lacked a certain passion that made it hard to get too deeply involved in the narrative. Overall, it was a well-told story with a lot of potential and an unusual plot, and there were enough twists and unexpected revelations to keep me from getting too complacent, but it was missing a certain energy that I hope will be present in any future entries in the series. A good strong start, but with plenty of room for improvement.