Oliphant Island: A Tale of Three Sisters

The Oliphant sisters--Miranda, Lulu and Leggy--spend every summer at their family's run-down Great Camp in the Adirondacks built by their great-great grandfather, back when the family was prosperous. As much as the girls look forward to time away from their New York City all-girls school, the tedium of an entire summer enjoying unspoiled nature, with no wireless connection anywhere, is more than they can bear. This summer their parents, Professor and Judge Oliphant, are busy with work and have handed them over to their kind but absentminded Aunt Ariel, who provides even less structure than their parents. Miranda daydreams about redecorating their moldy, book-filled camp; Lulu hungers for competitive sports; and Leggy, the littlest Oliphant, drives everyone crazy with her constant talk of fairies. When their odious cousins arrive unexpectedly, bringing with them all the tensions the girls thought they had left behind for the summer, the girls, who were each adopted from China, fight for their place in the family and for their beloved summer home. They discover that being an Oliphant brings lots of surprises.

MARY DAVIS is a writer who lives in New York City with her husband and three daughters. They spend every summer in their beloved summer home in Westport, New York, in the Adirondacks.