Lizzie is a five-year-old Amish girl in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is spunky, sensitive, and not nearly as pious as her older sister Emma. Lizzie sometimes daydreams instead of praying when she bows her head before meals . . . but she figures God knows she’s grateful for the good food Mam puts on the table every night. Her wild spirit often gets her in trouble, though, and she wonders why she can’t be as sweet and kind as her goody-two-shoes big sister. Will she always be at odds with her own fiery spirit?
Although Lizzie loves adventure, when her father’s business begins to struggle and she learns they’re moving to a new house in a different town, all she wants is to stay in the beloved home she knows with the little picket fence, the bubbling creek, and her favorite climbing trees. Through Linda Byler’s vivid descriptions of Amish life, you can walk with Lizzie as she adjusts to a new school, experience the terror of their awful buggy accident, laugh at her misadventures, and feel her struggle as she begins to question who she is as an individual in the midst of her tight knit Amish community.
This is the first book in the Buggy Spoke series, which follows Lizzie through her tumultuous teenage years as she struggles to mesh her hot temper and willful ways with her Amish faith. These books are the prequels to Linda Byler’s bestselling Lizzie Searches for Love Trilogy, geared to a younger audience (ages 8-10). Reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series, these books are delightful accounts of another way of life; each chapter is filled with vivid descriptions of Amish food, farms, and traditions. The series explores themes of respecting parents, not fitting in, sibling rivalry, recognizing your own shortcomings and gifts, and reconciling a strong personality with an abiding faith.