Beverly’s first venture into adult fiction is the best-selling trilogy, The Heritage of Lancaster County, including The Shunning, a suspenseful saga of Katie Lapp, a young Amish woman drawn to the modern world by secrets from her past. The book is loosely based on the author’s maternal grandmother, Ada Ranck Buchwalter, who left her Old Order Mennonite upbringing to marry a Bible College student. One Amish-country newspaper claimed Beverly’s work to be “a primer on Lancaster County folklore” and offers “an insider’s view of Amish life.”
Booksellers across the country, and around the world, have spread the word of Beverly’s tender tales of Plain country life. A clerk in a Virginia bookstore wrote, “Beverly’s books have a compelling freshness and spark. You just don’t run across writing like that every day. I hope she’ll keep writing stories about the Plain people for a long, long time.”
A member of the National League of American Pen Women, as well as a Distinguished Alumnus of Evangel University, Lewis has written over 80 books for children, youth, and adults, many of them award-winning. She and her husband, David, make their home in Colorado, where they enjoy hiking, biking, and spending time with their family. They are also avid musicians and fiction “book worms.”
Learn more about Beverly and her books on her Website.
MY REVIEW:
ABOUT THE BOOK:
When schoolteacher Jodi Winfield goes for a morning run, the last thing she expects is to find a disheveled little girl all alone on the side of the Pennsylvania road, clad only in her undergarments, her chubby cheeks streaked with tears. Jodi takes the preschooler home with her, intending to find out where she belongs. But Jodi is mystified when no one seems to know of a missing child, and the girl herself is no help, since she can’t speak a word of English. It’s as if the child appeared out of nowhere.
As the days pass, Jodi becomes increasingly attached to the mysterious girl, yet she is no closer to learning her identity. Then an unexpected opportunity brings Jodi to Hickory Hollow–and into the cloistered world of the Lancaster Old Order Amish. Might the answers lie there?
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Guardian, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
With her descriptive and easy-to-read style, Beverly Lewis takes the reader into Hickory Hollow and its slower yet comfortable way of life. This time we view this unique place through the eyes of schoolteacher Jodi Winfield who inadvertently finds herself involved with an Amish family and thoroughly charmed by their way of life. Still grieving her sister’s death, Jodi has wandered away from her faith yet finds a sympathetic friend in Amish widow Maryanna. As their friendship develops, each woman realizes that Jodi’s involvement in the Amish community may just have been orchestrated by God.
I enjoyed reading about the Amish in The Guardian, especially since there was very little emphasis on their strict rules and practices but highlighted their love of family and friends and their faith in God even in the face of tragedy. Although there was some romance, it was not the focus of this novel. Instead I saw how both Jodi and Maryanna grew in their faith and were able to overcome their grief to move on with their lives.
