Book 12: Seasons: A Real Story of an Amish Girl

Seasons: A Real Story of an Amish girl by Elizabeth Byler Younts showed a refreshing view of what it’s like to grow up Amish girl during the Depression. It’s not about an easy time growing up but it felt so real and you could relate to it while still being surprised.

My mom and I have enjoyed books about the Amish for a long time. So I knew this would be a perfect book to give to my mom for Christmas (especially since we are both very prone to sharing books to each other as long as it’s not in my sci-fi/fantasy/occult type books).  It was a book where my mom told me it was an easy read. So that wasn’t a surprise at all.

One of the things that I enjoyed a lot was how there was the idea of making sure there is enough money and how the family would sacrifice for the younger children. So often when I read the books about the Amish, there is often a brush over of money concerns. It’s something that you feel like is a concern of the Englisch and for the most part the Amish community in general is self-contained. It was intriguing and almost refreshing to see that they have the same concerns about providing for a family that I do.

I also liked reading about how World War II really touched their culture. You could understand how Liddy was frightened by the Japs coming and the discomfort of seeing the men leave the community to become conscious observers. But that move also helped to open up a new world.  She wouldn’t have met her husband if it wasn’t for the war effort. 

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read. It was a lot of fun stories about growing up as Amish. You could really see how the Amish isn’t always so different from the Englisch.