Diane P. (KentuckyReader) -
Helpful Score: 1
A Summer Secret is a story about at 13-year-old Amish girl, Mary Beth Mullet, and her family who live in the Amish community of Middlefield, Ohio. Mary Beth is going thru the typical tribulations of a thirteen year old who often resents her parents' discipline and is totally annoyed by her three brothers. She finds an old abandoned barn in the neighboring fields and decides to use it as her place of retreat where she can draw & write in her journal even though her father has told the children that the old barn is off limits.
Mary Beth soon discovers that her twin brother, Johnny, knows where her secret hideaway is and threatens to tattle on her unless she allows him share the hideaway. From the very beginning Mary Beth and Johnny seem to get into all kinds of trouble because they disobey their parents. Soon the two children suspect that someone else is using the abandoned barn and discover the "outsider" or "Yankee," Sawyer Thompson.
Fourteen year old Sawyer has run away from a foster home because of mistreatment and neglect. The two Mullet children befriend Sawyer and try to help him, resulting in trouble for them with their parnets.
While the ending was pretty obvious and the mystery itself wasn't intense at all, it was still an interesting read. When it comes to clean fiction, A Summer Secret meets all criteria. Though intended for juvenile readers, I believe many adults would also enjoy reading this Christian mystery.
Although, I did have a problem with the authors method of establishing a home for Sawyer among the Amish people. I have never heard of the Amish becoming State Licensed Foster Parents to foster a child who was not Amish. It would go against their Ordnung ( rules) to get involved that much in worldly affairs.
Mary Beth soon discovers that her twin brother, Johnny, knows where her secret hideaway is and threatens to tattle on her unless she allows him share the hideaway. From the very beginning Mary Beth and Johnny seem to get into all kinds of trouble because they disobey their parents. Soon the two children suspect that someone else is using the abandoned barn and discover the "outsider" or "Yankee," Sawyer Thompson.
Fourteen year old Sawyer has run away from a foster home because of mistreatment and neglect. The two Mullet children befriend Sawyer and try to help him, resulting in trouble for them with their parnets.
While the ending was pretty obvious and the mystery itself wasn't intense at all, it was still an interesting read. When it comes to clean fiction, A Summer Secret meets all criteria. Though intended for juvenile readers, I believe many adults would also enjoy reading this Christian mystery.
Although, I did have a problem with the authors method of establishing a home for Sawyer among the Amish people. I have never heard of the Amish becoming State Licensed Foster Parents to foster a child who was not Amish. It would go against their Ordnung ( rules) to get involved that much in worldly affairs.
