Mary Christner BorntragerCritiques

This is a short, wholesome book that takes place in an Amish community. An “English” (not Amish) girl has been left in the care of a sweet Amish family while her mother goes out of town for personal reasons. During the trip, her mother passed away, and Pearlie Mae is left to stay at the Amish family’s home. They change her name to be more Amish, and the book follows Annie through the next few years of her life on this community.

Apparently, this series, “Ellie’s People” is quite popular in Amish and Mennonite communities. I can see why! It’s completely appropriate for all ages, teaches some life lessons without being over preachy, and describes daily life ok an average Amish dairy farm.

I recommend this to anyone who likes simple stories with solid morals, and appreciates an author who can pull this off without being over-bearingly preachy about such topics. I would actually like to read more from this series if I ever had a chance to.

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

I find it hard to read Borntrager's books because she inserts so much Pennsylvania Dutch (and its translation). I admire her desire to keep true to Amish life and have no doubt that these phrases are commonly used in Amish family life, but the excessive usage breaks up the story for me.

Amish youth have a time of running around during which they can experience worldly ways before deciding if they will officially join the church. Polly and her brother Ben reach this age while their family is living in Texas, away from Amish youngsters their age. Having no Amish to cavort with, Polly is drawn to worldly ways more strongly--with almost disastrous results.

There are stories. Then there are stories about stories.

I felt like "Daniel" by Mary Christner Borntrager was a story about a story. It seemed like someone was telling about a story that was heard rather than one that was experienced. The characters were not well developed. There were long sections where the story moved too quickly (not enough detail), and other places that felt draggy. Many of the conversations in the book felt artificial, almost like someone had said, "This book needs more dialogue", so the author tried to insert some.

Still it was a sweet story. I enjoy stories of the Amish, and I truly liked the family that this story was about. It was a very quick read -- no more than a couple of hours. I would have preferred the book to be longer, and to include more depth of character.

The author has written several other books, and I would be willing to give them a try. If I had to choose, though, between this author and other authors known for their Amish writings, I would read the other authors first.

Growing up in an Amish home is no protection from peer pressure. Reuben struggles to balance wanting to prove himself to his friends and living up to the expectations of his parents. On a dare, Reuben tries to show how fast his horse can run and trouble erupts. Book #5 in the Ellie's People series.

This isn't the first time I've read this book, but my fascination with the Amish means I occasionally read such books over again, just for fun.

This isn't a very challenging book even by YA standards, but I have to commend it for giving a curious people an insider's view on what it is to be Amish. Not many books bother with that, instead looking upon the Amish from the view of an outsider only.

That being said, though, the book does have a few problems. Aside from various typos that slipped into the final publication ("forbidden fruity"), the story doesn't have much in the way of pacing. The main character, Ellie, goes from being six to sixteen to somewhere in her twenties, and half the time there's absolutely no indication that she's changed in age until a character mentions it in thought. This means that sometimes I'm not sure whether Ellie is a child or going through puberty sometimes, and believe me the style of writing doesn't make it easy to tell just from character viewpoint alone.

Though I must say, it is better handled overall than some of the later books in the series. The first book of the author's that I read was Sarah, and while it too suffered from problems of pacing and timeline, it also suffered from an overabundance of pointless Pennsylvania Deutsch words. Ellie has a smattering of them and they're explained decently, but in Sarah, the author seems compelled to remind us about every ten pages or so that maut means "hired girl." Really, Mrs. Borntrager, we all had it figured out after the first few chapters.

The non-Amish are not protrayed in a very good light, either. We see Ellie's childhood friend Missy all grown up near the end of the book, the person Ellie used to admire very much for her conveniences and pretty clothes and all that. Missy has two children of her own whom she treats rather shabbily, the kids themselves seem like brats, Missy smokes, and her husband is absent because he's in the army. Missy becomes the epitome of everything that isn't Amish, and it's clear from the portrayal which person, and thus lifestyle, the reader is supposed to think of as the better one.

Still, in spite of its problems, this book was an interesting read, seeing a young and willful Amish girl grow up and fall in love and get married, finally content in her lifestyle despite the temptations of the outside world. Combined with Sarah (the only two books in the series I've read, though I'd love to read the others if I can ever find them), I think this series reveals more about the life and worldviews of the author than anything else, and that can be as fascinating as the book itself.