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(4)
YA
Mennonite teen Lucy looks forward to the annual visit of her Amish friend Alice. But this year, Alice is exploring life outside the Old Order during Rumspringa, and Lucy grows envious of Alice's temporary freedom. When Alice disappears, Lucy leads her own investigation. This culturally sensitive novel offers a glimpse into Amish and Mennonite communities, though it's a relatively predictable mystery.
220 pp.
| Tundra
| September, 2016
|
TradeISBN 978-1-101-91811-1$16.99
(3)
YA
Without warning, Anneli's father moves her from their Mennonite colony in Bolivia to Toronto to find her ten-years-absent mother. Reeling from culture shock but with guidance from neighboring teens, Ana navigates secular high school, reconnects with her mother, and pieces together sinister family secrets. Alternating a third-person narrative in Toronto with Ana's first-person flashbacks to Bolivia heightens the tension as this mystery unfolds.
40 pp.
| Groundwood
| March, 2011
|
TradeISBN 978-0-88899-975-7$18.95
(4)
K-3
Illustrated by
Isabelle Arsenault.
An author's note explains that Anna is a German Mennonite, traveling from Mexico to Canada to work the crops. This little-known group, wearing old-fashioned garb and speaking a German dialect, merits attention, and the story is sensitive to the inequities of migrant life. However, the text and pictures are distracted by too much nature imagery as Anna imagines herself to be various animals.
40 pp.
| Eerdmans
| September, 2001
|
TradeISBN 0-8028-5207-6$$17.00
(4)
K-3
Illustrated by
Bill Farnsworth.
The author celebrates the life of the Pennsylvania Dutch in seventeen poems. Accompanied by handsome oil paintings that feature scenes of nature, the verses emphasize the connection between the people and the land. Because almost all of the free-verse poems have a similar sound and structure--two or three stanzas composed of short lines with many adjectives--they become a bit tedious when read all at once and will be best appreciated when experienced individually.
177 pp.
| Atheneum/Karl
| March, 2000
|
TradeISBN 0-689-82822-5$$16.00
(3)
4-6
William, the son of a Methodist minister, moves to a small town in Kansas and becomes friends with Jim, a Mennonite boy. When America enters World War II, Jim's pacifist beliefs drive a wedge between the two high school freshmen. The unusual subject matter is well served by the novel's sympathetic characterizations and realistically ambiguous conclusion.