Help Me

One thing I've enjoyed about being a grown up is recapturing certain elements of my childhood. The great thing about being an adult is that when you see a toy in the store that you want, you don't necessarily have to wait until Christmas to get it. (You might have to wait for your wife's permission but that's another story.) And I feel pretty fortunate. My tastes may be juvenile but I bet Suzanne prefers that I occasionally buy a three dollar comic book or a ten dollar action figure than spend a hundred bucks and half of a Saturday on the golf course. It's probably better for everyone around that I'm happy to buy my occasional graphic design book rather than needing to refurbish a Mustang from the frame up.

I'm digressing.

Anyway, one thing I've done in the last several years is try to collect all the really important books from my childhood - things that I read that moved me, stayed with me, entertained me, contributed to my inner world, etc. So far, I've had pretty good luck. One way or another, I've gotten copies of Simple Pictures Are Best, The Giant Jam Sandwich, Once Upon A Pirate Ship, The Secret Clubhouse, Enemies of the Secret Clubhouse, Something Queer Is Going On, and, the greatest find of them all, Andrew Henry's Meadow. I found it for ten cents at a Deseret Industries in Boise. It was like light from Heaven was pouring down onto that dirty, little bookshelf that day.

Anyway, one book continues to elude me. The problem is that I can't remember the title. I know the premise and basic storyline and can even still see some of the illustrations in my head - but I don't know what it's called. I'm sure it's out there and that I could probably buy a copy on Ebay for sixty cents - IF ONLY I KNEW THE TITLE!

I do remember that it was an adventure novel targeted at your average boy from the 1950s or 60s. (That's how up to date my grade school library was.) It had occasional spot illustrations but was a novel rather than a picture book. As I recall, it was about a young man who goes to spend the summer with his grandparents. (I know. That only narrows it down to every young adult novel ever written, right?) They live near a swamp/bayou and the boy spends his days taking his pole skiff out around the overgrown corridors of the swamp. I remember specifically a passage about how, if a snake appeared on a low-hanging branch above him, he'd slap the surface of the water with his pole and make a bunch of splashing noises and, for whatever reason, that would make the snake drop out of the tree and into the water. Not sure if that's true or if it works but, at the time (third or fourth grade), I filed it away for future reference. Thought it might come in handy later.

As the boy is exploring the swamp one day, he comes across a corridor formed by cypress trees, moss, vines, etc. He follows it and it turns out to be a portal to past where a tribe of Native Americans who have had no contact with the modern world live. He befriends one of the Indians who is roughly his age and. . . I can't remember after that. It seems like that tribe is somehow threatened by the modern world. I can't remember who or what but it seems like, in the end, the boy has to leave and never go back. Something like that.

Anyway, I've searched it using general terms on Google, asked about it on literature listservs, and even gone so far as to call the library at Hillcrest Elementary in American Falls, Idaho hoping that one of the librarians might recognize what I was talking about.

No luck.

So what about it, my loyal readers? Does this story ring a bell with anyone? Do you know someone who's a kid's lit expert who could help me track it down? Is it sitting on your bookshelf even as you read this? Probably not - but I thought I'd take a stab.