Paradise Valley
Jul 7, 2011
Author: Dale Cramer
Publisher: Bethany House
Publication Date: January, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7642-0838-6
I received this book after meeting the author and was intrigued enough about what he discussed to review the book. I was not sure about "Amish fiction" as I had not had much experience with it. The most popular Amish writer, Beverly Lewis, has not had a book cross my desk. I wasn't sure what I was receiving or if it might be "uptight" in nature.
I was very pleasantly pleased to find that the book not only keeps your interest the entire way through but it makes sure the Amish are full of human emotion and actions. This book does not make them a caricature of an idea but presents them as they are - people with feelings. It is a story of a family looking for that ideal life where they can just "be".
Caleb has 5 girls and 2 sons and lives, works and worships with the rest of his Amish neighbors as they've been raised. Then one day the law shows up and takes the fathers to prison and the school age children to a foster home. The crime? The fact that they are all homeschooled and work on the farms during the week - it goes against the new US child labor laws.
When Caleb gets out of jail he finds a notice for cheap land in Mexico. He comes up with the idea of moving the community there to be left alone. The community decides he should go first to give it a try. So he packs up kith and kin to move to a new country.
They children leave behind friends and possible future husbands and wives to go to a land where they don't even speak the language.
Will they be successful in this endeavor or will they head into something too dangerous for them to survive? The rules and behaviors are so completely different in this new country.
I found myself hanging on to each endeavor, hoping for their success.
This is the first book in a trilogy and I look forward to the next one!
