"Life with Lily" by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher

Lately I have noticed more and more books that revolve around the Amish. Since I live in a part of the country that (to my knowledge) has no Amish people, it is a culture that I know very little about. That is part of why I had an interest in Life With Lily. I was very interested when I read the author bios and found out that they (especially Mary Ann Kinsinger) actually have knowledge of the Amish and it shows throughout the book.

Lily Lapp is a young child growing up Amish. She helps her mother care for her younger siblings, has tasks around the farm and begins to go to school. It is very interesting to see the world through her eyes as she discovers that joys (and sorrows) of life. This book also has plenty of descriptions of how various tasks are done without the aid of modern technology, something that I enjoyed quite a bit. In some ways, the style of the book reminded me of Little House in the Big Woods, but this could have been due to the passages that detail cheese making and doing laundry. Little House also spends a lot of time focusing on how the Ingalls' do such things (and even the illustrations have a similar style). The one thing I really didn't care about this book was that I couldn't quite tell when it was set. It has plenty of references that remind the reader that though the Lapps live a very simple life, they still exist in the modern world, but it would have been nice to know just when everything was taking place. I am hopeful that the later books will address this. I would also like to see more of Lily making discoveries of more modern technology (I am very curious to see what she thinks of them). Lastly, I would also be interested to see her grow up and who she becomes as an adult.

Since there are so many books out there that I am anxious to read, I am not sure how likely I will be to keep up with this series. I enjoyed it enough to have curiosity of the later books but this might be one of those series that I never get around to completing. However, I am highly recommending it to young readers as it will definitely have appeal and kids will hopefully learn a thing or two as well!




Happy Reading!
-Melly

P.S. This book just might have the best quote of all time in it: "Why, it was the ugliest little baby Lily had ever seen!"