2/15/2007: This was much drier than I had expected. I found myself counting the pages left as I reached the end. I've read a lot about the Amish so nothing in this book really came as a surprise to me.
Although they appear to be a holy, righteous group, the ones I've read about are overall really a bunch of people so full of pride that they can't even take hope in the Bible they claim to be following.
One concept that has always bugged me is that the Amish that I've read about shun the modern conveniences of the world, yet when a troubling situation comes up that they can't deal with, then it's time to call in the modern conveniences "just this once".
One passage that I liked and I hope will stick with me was where he tells of a homemaker who is folding laundry. As she folds each piece, she thinks of the wearer and the blessing they are to the family. Since I am forever buried under laundry mountain (sister to TBR mountain), this is a good thing for me to hold on to!
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I borrowed this one from my local branch of the public library.

Find my note on the book in my blog:
[http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/07/booknote-rumspringa.html] ( )

A great and interesting book to read.
It gave me more insight and (inside) information about the Amish people, just like I had hoped it would. The series I watched on television awoke my interest, and this book satisfied (part of) that curiosity.
The parts I loved best were the ones that more or less quoted the teenagers / young adults. It offered a peek inside their heads. Their thoughts, fears, hopes in a period that is difficult for any teenager, but even more when you have to make such a life determining decision as they have. ( )

Very interesting read. This book features several Amish teenagers and their struggles to find their place in the world. In the Amish tradition, young adults have a time of "Rumspringa", or "running around" where they are permitted to sample the world outside the Amish way. They all face a huge choice: stay in the secular world, totally separate from the life and family they've known, or be baptized and join the church, thereby giving up some of their newfound freedoms. It's fascinating.

The book is a measured, thoughtful and well-researched view of the period between childhood and commitment to the church (or leaving the church) that the Amish call rumspringa - literally 'running around'. Everything is permitted for these teens and early twenties, or if not exactly permitted, then not forbidden. As an anabaptist sect, the Amish believe that baptism must be entered into freely by an adult, in full knowledge of the alternative, 'English' or mainstream America. This baptism is an unbreakable commitment to the Church and not, as the Baptist sects believe, any guarantee of an eternal dwelling in heaven.

After reading the book, which is written from the point of view of an interested and not-unsympathetic mainstream American, I have a great deal of respect from the Amish's ideas of community and how to maintain it, of their pacifist and non-judgmental stance and forgiveness of all acts by their children, no matter how against their ethics and even the law, during their rumspringa. It is difficult, however, to sympathise with the extreme submissiveness and abnegation of all self-determination of the women, and their insistence on only the most basic of formal education ending at 14. The various bans on electricity, telephones and motors in most circumstances but not all seem hypocritical. It strikes me as ridiculous that ownership and driving of cars (outside of rumspringa) are forbidden, but riding in them and hiring them with a driver isn't. Needless to say, most religions have these strange little peculiarities, but generally they aren't so obvious as with the Amish.

This is a good book, deep, interesting and well-written. Its a slice of America that is generally regarded as quaint, antiquated and a bit of a tourist show. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Amish are a thriving, growing religion that is deeply introspective and cares little what the world thinks of it. ( )