Martin has already suffered terribly by the time the reader meets him, while he’s spending the summer in his family’s Adirondack cottage. We learn few details about his life before Cyrus and Nonie adopt him from Father Horrigan’s Home for Boys, where he has lived for a few years. The suspense builds around the origin of the gruesome scars on his left hand and chest and is finally revealed three-quarters into the novel, close to the end of Part 1. It turns out that we cannot find out what happened until Martin is able to remember the terrible accident.

Like his young character, author Marc Douglass Smith, a poet and retired English professor, also spent his childhood summers in the Adirondacks. Tamarack Summers is based on these visits, and it seems his memories provide the background for this charming story of a young boy’s emotional healing. The fairy tale-like story, which features talking animals that only Martin can hear, is written for fourth and fifth graders. As you’ll see, it begins and ends with Rory, Martin’s nephew.

Part 1 begins with 7-year-old Rory coming to his Uncle Martin’s house to collect him for a birthday dinner. Among old family photos on the wall, Rory notices a large photo of a turtle and asks why it is included with the family photographs. Martin begins to tell the story of meeting the turtle, his best friend, whom he met when he was about Rory’s age.

Martin loves his adoptive parents. They are kind and thoughtful and they often tell him how grateful they are to be a family of three. Nonie makes her special blueberry pancakes, cream cheese and olive sandwiches, and jugs of fresh lemonade. She paints wildflowers and has strong kayaking skills, which become important later in the novel. Cyrus — or Papa Cider, as Martin calls him — is patient while teaching his son how to clean out rain gutters, patch window screens, and make general repairs around their cottage, Three Tamaracks, on Orenda Lake. But Martin is lonely. Against his nature, because he is a good-hearted boy, he decides he must lie to them in order to complete an important physical and emotional journey.

Martin meets his best friend when he sees a baby turtle perched on a rock while paddling with Papa Cider and Nonie. He wants to bring her home because she is all alone, but his parents tell him she is right where she needs to be. The next day, the little turtle swims up onto the beach at the cottage. Papa Cider gently brushes glue onto her cracked shell, and she lives in an aquarium in Martin’s room for a few weeks while she heals. He names her Myra. When he talks, she seems to listen. Soon, Myra learns to speak and their lifelong friendship begins.

Myra leaves her aquarium after healing but returns every morning to spend the day with Martin before heading home.

Later, Martin meets Myra’s friends, Florelle (a snow goose) and Cheevis (an otter with a very good vocabulary). They all become friends, but the little Painted Turtle is his best friend. These friends encourage him to take the most difficult journey of his life to Glacier Pond to see the Piebald Deer. They tell him, “something wonderful always happens” when you see the Piebald deer. He promises them he will practice his kayak skills with his parents to get ready for the difficult trip up the white waters of Bender Creek. It is here that his painful memories return and we learn how he earned his horrific scars. It seems at this point his life changes. He heals emotionally and meets his future wife.

Part 2 covers the rest of his life as a herpetologist, his moving to San Francisco to take a job as executive director of the Pacific Center for the Study of Turtles, the deaths of his parents and eventually, his wife. The story ends with Martin as an old man returning to Three Tamaracks cottage, which he sold many years ago. The new family is there but only the girl, Amelia, pays him any mind. At 12 years old with red hair the color of Nonie’s, she sits on the beach drawing the white pines and a mallard she can’t get quite right. Martin admires the work in her sketch pad and notices some drawings of a familiar turtle who Amelia says visits her regularly. Martin tells the young artist that the turtle is named Myra. Over the years, Amelia writes to tell him news about Myra.

At this point, the story reverts to old Martin and Rory, who is now worrying about what has happened to Myra. Uncle Martin walks with him down a trail to a pond the boy didn’t know existed. There, on a big red rock on Glacier Pond near Orenda Lake, a very old Painted Turtle sleeps in the sun. Rory wonders if his uncle’s story is true but is thrilled when he hears Myra say, “Happy birthday, Martin!”

Adults who grew up with imaginary friends will understand why this story would appeal to an imaginative middle school reader. According to Papa Cider, Orenda is a Native American word meaning “magic,” which is a fitting description for the story of Martin, Myra, and a healing journey that started at Three Tamaracks in the Adirondacks.