The Forgotten Summer of Seneca

by Camryn Garrett

From acclaimed author Camryn Garrett comes a middle-grade mystery with a magical twist, about a girl who goes to live with her aunt in the summer after the loss of her father—and who finds a doorway in Central Park that leads to a magically preserved historical village

Everything is changing, and twelve-year-old Rowan Robinson hates it. She’s dreading having to spend her summer in New York City with her Aunt Monica, even though she used to love it. But things are just different after her father passed away. Without him, nothing about her world feels the same.

Things start to get a little better when Rowan brings her dad’s old camera to Central Park to take pictures. But as she’s snapping photos, she notices a strange mirror-like shape floating in the air. When she gets closer to it, she trips and falls through the portal, and after she lands, she finds herself in a different world: Seneca Village, where Black people with magical abilities seem to live in the past, in a time without phones or electricity. At first, Rowan thinks it must be a dream, but the more time she spends in the village with her new friend Lily, the more she wants it to be real.

But outsiders aren’t even supposed to be able to find Seneca. Rowan and Lily aren’t sure how Rowan was able to see the portal, but they suspect it might have something to do with the girl who normally guards the portal having gone missing. As Rowan and Lily search for clues to help find the missing girl and uncover the truth of the portal’s magic, Rowan begins to realize what secrets this village might be hiding, and how the events of the past still linger in the present day.

Filled with sparkling magic, honest explorations of grief, and moving depictions of a new friendship, The Forgotten Summer of Seneca asks us to remember a history that’s often overlooked—and imagine a future where we’re brave enough to embrace change.

Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Historical, Mystery, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction, Grief

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2025

About the author

Camryn Garrett was born and raised in New York. In 2019, she was named one of Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21 and a Glamour College Woman of the Year. Her first novel, Full Disclosure, received rave reviews from outlets such as Entertainment Weekly, the Today Show, and The Guardian, which called a “warm, funny and thoughtfully sex-positive, an impressive debut from a writer still in her teens.” Her second novel, Off the Record received three starred reviews. Her third novel, Friday I’m in Love, was an IndieNext Pick and received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. Camryn is also interested in film and recently graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. You can find her on Twitter @dancingofpens, tweeting from a laptop named Stevie.

Reviews

[Sacha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Camryn Garrett's YA novels have all REALLY worked for me, so I was thrilled to see this middle grade work on tap and even more excited to have found it so moving. This is a unique and meaningful read.

It's summer, and Rowan is on her way to spend some time with her aunt. This is an especially challenging time for Rowan because she has recently lost her father. Garrett has written and spoken openly about losing her father, so it was difficult for me to separate the situation from the author (which, in this case, made the whole narrative even more meaningful). While staying with her aunt, Rowan has some expected emotional moments, but she also encounters a magical situation that no one - Rowan included - could have anticipated.

Like all of Garrett's books, the character development, representation, and flow are spot on. There's also keen audience awareness and enough sadness to make this realistic but not unmanageable. I really enjoyed the author's note about the Staples article and how that influenced the idea for this book overall.

I came in a fan of this author and am leaving feeling that even more strongly. I am looking forward to recommending this one to students.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Amulet Books for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

[rachel x]

"A middle-grade mystery with a magical twist, about a girl who goes to live with her aunt in the summer after the loss of her father—and who finds a doorway in Central Park that leads to a magically preserved historical village"

this cover is GORGEOUS

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Rowan Robinson is still struggling with the death of her father, and is not happy with her mother, who is making her spend the summer with her Aunt Monica in Manhattan instead of being at home on Long Island. She maintains that she can stay by herself while her mother works, but her mother knows that she will just mope in her room. Previously, she has enjoyed being in the city, and her aunt supplies her with lots of craft materials, and the two eat out and see the sights on a regular basis. Now, even though she has a therapist to help her deal with her grief, Rowan just can’t enjoy doing things, always thinking about her father. When she takes his old school camera out into Central Park to take pictures, she has an odd experience, and travels through a portal to meet Lily, who lives in Seneca Village. This is based on a real place that existed from 1825-1857 at 85th Street and Columbus Avenue, but it is a different version where the residents all have magical skills. When Rowan went through the portal into this world, a girl from the village, Sage, disappeared. This is a problem, since she was in charge of keeping the portal safe. There is a well founded fear that people from the modern world will manage to get into the village and cause problems. As Rowan goes back and forth between hanging out with her aunt, and going to the village, she tries to figure out where Sage has gone, and how to protect this new world that she finds so intriguing. A friend of Aunt Monica’s has studied Seneca Village, and Rowan (and the reader) learns how this thriving Black community was sacrificed in the name of progress to provide green space for wealthy, white New Yorkers. She also brings Lily to visit Manhattan in order to find Sage, and the two get to see the Metropolitan Museum. Will Rowan be able to help keep this magical version of Seneca Village safe?
Strengths: This is a great virtual trip to Manhattan, and yes, I looked up the address on Google Earth and am a bit jealous of Rowan getting to spend her summer there with her aunt! I appreciated that the author also lost her father, and used the writing of this book to work through her own grief; this adds a level of understanding of loss to the story that most middle grade books that use this trope do not have. Actually, there was less about grief in this book than in many similar titles! I’m always a fan of a time slip, and I want so much more information about Seneca Village after reading this.
Weaknesses: Seneca Village is such an interesting historical place that I wish the story hadn’t included as much magic. There’s plenty of information about the village and Central Park, but the inclusion of the magical elements makes it seem less like a real thing.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like books that include hard to find information about Black history, like Cumming’s Trace, Rhodes’ Treasure Island, or Watson’s Some Places More Than Others.

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[Rhianna Frey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was absolutely enthralled with this book as I was reading. I'm not very well-versed in Black history, but I loved how this novel incorporated genuine history in its narrative and I thought the writing style was excellent. I loved how immersive the environment of Seneca Village was and it definitely scratched the itch of wanting to lose myself in a whimsical place.

As for criticisms, I did think that the New Yorkers entering Seneca Village and not even knowing that they had gone someplace different was a bit goofy. It's a bit conceptually charming in its ridiculousness, but it did take me out of the book for a minute. If the people that had entered had been more malicious, it may have better justified the Seneca Villagers' perspective that strangers entering the village was a bad idea. Maybe there could have been a money-hungry person who entered and tried to commodify the village, alongside the normal folk who just didn't know where they were.

I also wish there was some lore-driven explanation for why everyone in the village is Black even though there were also, as the book mentions, Irish and German immigrants in the original village. I think we need more POC-centric stories on our shelves, and it didn't take away too much from the worldbuilding for me, but it did make me a bit sad that there was no reasoning provided for that. I believe Aunt Monica says at some point that Seneca Village is moreso referred to as a 'Black community' which makes sense, but it makes me wonder whether Seneca Village — the magical one — is influenced by public perception. Like, people think of it as a Black community so only Black individuals exist there. That would be really interesting!

I want to know more about how the magic works in the village, also. I was surprised that Lily's magic worked outside of the village and in the real world, and I especially liked the spell she could do where voices emitted from flowers like a speaker. I love unique magic like that. All in all, my biggest gripes with this book is just that I want more of it! I want to know more of the lore and learn more about the magical history of the place.

[YSBR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since her dad died, Rowan Robinson has hated change. Nothing feels the same, including her annual summer trip to New York City, where she spends time with her aunt. The only thing comforting Rowan is her father’s old camera and taking photos. But when she is snapping pictures in Central Park one day, Rowan notices a strange mirror-like opening in the air. She quickly realizes that it’s a portal when she trips and falls into another world, or rather, another time. Seneca Village is the town before Central Park, where Black people with magical abilities live. Lily, a Seneca resident, meets her first, and the two quickly become friends. But questions soon follow: How did Rowan get here? Why are the portals malfunctioning? And what happened to the girl who guards them? As she and Lily search for answers, Rowan learns just how much the past can affect the present. 

The Forgotten Summer of Seneca is a charming magical realism story of a girl who travels between time to uncover a secret history and solve a mystery to protect a hidden and magical place. Rowan has to discover the truth of Seneca village, full of wonder and heritage, and navigate the racial tension of past and current New York City, to understand why the town even exists. But, as she uncovers the mystery of Seneca and the haywire portals, Rowan must also deal with her grief, which manifests in her brief bouts of anger and reluctance to change. This never stops Rowan from helping Lily and keeping the village safe. Lily is a sweet, shy friend who balances Rowan’s stronger personality, and the two make a great detective team and supportive pairing. The plot ends on an uplifting tone that will leave readers feeling warm. Everyone is African American. Overall, The Forgotten Summer of Seneca is a quiet, enchanting, and delightful read, full of historical facts of Black history, and perfect for the summer. Link to complete review: https://ysbookreviews.wordpress.com/2...

[Mariah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before this I had read only one other Camryn Garrett novel; a young adult book called Full Disclosure. Despite my reticence towards young adult works I enjoyed Full Disclosure. I found it a well written, thoughtful exploration of a stigmatized issue. While The Forgotten Summer of Seneca is not about a medical condition, it does deal with a similarly serious topic and I anticipated the same level of care that was expressed in Full Disclosure.

And in this regard, she nailed it.

Rowan is a believably grief-stricken 12 year old. I liked how her grief manifested as a fear of change that paralleled the decision to hide away Seneca. I thought her acceptance of her grief - in that it will always exist, simply becoming less actively pressing as life moves forward - was a great way to mirror how Black people come to mold themselves around the micro and macro-trauma that afflicts us constantly.

But, where she succeeded with the character arc, she failed to properly construct the story built around it.

Seneca never feels as magical as it is clearly meant to. Largely due to the fact that it is so unexplored it might as well be a normal village for all it matters that the people have special powers. How this society functions on a day to day basis, what the people are like, what their values are or the trauma that would logically stem from totally isolating the community from the normal flow of time is left vague creating a disconnection rom it as a centerpiece.

The more regulated and thought out the rules are for a world, the higher the stakes because you know exactly what is at risk to the nth degree. I did not feel that for Seneca because it never truly felt like anyone outside of a handful of kids was all that bothered by the events of the story or that much of a disruption had occurred at all.

There also were allusions to a nasty underbelly to Seneca that went ignored that doubled my frustration with Garrett’s refusal to elaborate. The central conflict in the story is about what happened to the guard of the portal (Sage) and a big part of that is related to what might have pushed her to run if she wasn’t kidnapped. Yet, without developing more of the wider world this plot point felt random and rushed. The entire basis for this theory was that Rowan witnesses Sage’s father being mean one time.

To be fair, the other kids do tell her that Sage’s family can be harsh, but why not trap Rowan in the town or something so she can actively experience their judgment or bear witness to the ills at the heart of them? That would better sell the idea that Seneca isn’t a haven as the people are ignoring the mistreatment out of respect to the family’s position or out of fear of rocking the boat.

The little logical inconsistencies bothered me too. For example, at one point Rowan tells her aunt that she made a friend at Central Park to explain the handkerchief Lily gave her. Later on when Lily follows Rowan through the portal and meets Rowan’s aunt, her aunt says that Rowan never mentioned Lily before. Or that everyone is freaking out looking for Sage because without a guard for the portal anyone could enter it (which happens a couple times) yet her entire family apparently has the power to control the portal, so why is that even an issue?

This is Camryn Garrett’s first middle grade venture so I’m going to chalk this up to growing pains. Hopefully, the next one improves on the potential I could see here.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a curious time travel scifi story with a historical focus as the main character Rowan spends the summer with her aunt after her dad's passing and accidentally arrives in this village of Black people in a time unlike any other when she was taking pictures and passed through though she shouldn't have been able to but meets several girls who give her the information about what happened and figure out how to get Rowan back to the present while giving her a crash course in New York and Black history.

I liked it but I didn't love it like Garrett's first book, but it was unique and informative.

[Jennybeast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool portal fantasy -- love the reimagining of Seneca Village, and love that this history is returning to prominence. Love that Rowan has such a strong artistic interest -- embroidery, photography. This book is a pretty great celebration of New York City, and a little bit sad about the changes that have led to less diversity and opportunity for everyone. Great friendship, solid depiction of a kid mourning her dad, and rad Auntie showing her how to live well.

[Marissa Spear · Rating 5 out of 5]

I effectively read Garrett’s MG debut in one sitting. It’s a beautiful look at grief and belonging with a bit of Black history (Seneca Village-the neighborhood razed to build Central Park) and a touch of magic.

[Tiffany]

Recommended by author Jasmine Guillory on Open Book with Jenna podcast 4/17/25.

[Beth Cataldo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Anna Keating · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really cute!! I would’ve loved it when i was younger. I think it’ll be good for kids to learn

Also loveeee that all the names of the Seneca Village characters are plants. Adorable

[Mees · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25⭐️

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars.

the fact that the author managed to make a book about the black descendants from seneca village living in a magical, alternate reality boring is truly a feat in itself.

[Margo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice story for children.

[Marcie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I I'm having such a hard time finishing this because I just read Candle Island (Lauren Wolk) which was so well written and descriptively beautiful. Although an interesting concept and story this was so bland by comparison. I guess I can see teachers finding value in this touch on history and kids will probably be intrigued by the portal to the past. Maybe trying it again later will be a good idea

Finally finished this and I think part of my issue with the audio was that I found the narration annoying. I was able to move along better when reading. Maybe this is one where I liked the premise, but not the execution.