My daughter Payton,11, who loves to read plans to guest post occasionally here now.
By Payton Schuck

Life With Lily was an amazing read. It was very complex and I liked how descriptive so many passages were. My favourite character was Lily, a six-year-old Amish girl, who has two brothers Dannie and Joseph. She is a happy young girl who has a positive outlook on things. Her Mom and Dad are traditional Amish people and she is raised surrounded by animals and she loves being outside and helping her mother in the garden. Lily is in grade one and she lives in upstate New York. She finds something fun and curious about every new experience and each new day. 

When her youngest brother is born, Lily thinks he is ugly. Her cousin Hannah’s mom has a baby at the same time and Lily finds that baby adorable. She wishes her cousin’s baby brother was her baby brother at first. Lily is a good helper to her Mom and Dad and she looks after her brothers too. Lily does arithmetic and attends a very small one-room school house heated by a coal stove. (the kind my grandma always talks about). Lily faces lots of changes – from a baby brother to a new school teacher. Her brother Joseph gets into mischief. He jumps off the chicken coop, tries to fly and breaks his arm. Her brother Dannie dumps a bucket of flour on his head when his Mom is baking bread one day. Lily dreams he is a snowman after that. Her brothers are very active and always finding something to destroy. 

Lily enjoys school and church, but she has one friend Mandy who is often telling her to do things that Lily often knows with her heart she shouldn’t do, but she ends up doing them anyways. One day Mandy tells Lily and some other little girls to come and play in a secret spot. They end up playing on train tracks and a train comes whipping through. Lily almost gets run over, but her Dad swoops in fast to save her. Lily and her family have to move to Pennsylvania at the end of this first book. She is not happy about moving at first, but once she sees the area and meets a new friend while visiting, then she is convinced it won’t be so bad after all. 

Life With Lily: Book One is by Suzanne Woods Fisher and Mary Ann Kinsinger, published by Revell Books, 2012, ages 8-12, 280 pages, $12.99 $$$$$ out of $$$$$. Our highest rating. 

(A note from me: Paula Schuck – publisher of thriftymommastips.com. Life With Lily was a total delight for me. I had to wrestle this novel away from Payton at bedtime she loved it so much and found it truly compelling. She took it to school and gave mini reviews to her friends, then her friends each wanted to read it next. I loved that this book was so charming and really rekindled my daughter’s love of reading. She naturally enjoys cultural stories and this tale of a young Amish girl and her daily life was pitch perfect in every way. I have reviewed Suzanne Woods Fisher’s novels for adults and find her writing to be technically and artistically stunning. So pleased this is the first in a series for young readers.)