Childrens+Book+Review

//An Amish Wedding // Illustrated by, Pamela Patrick By, Richard Ammon Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, 1998 Book Summary  This book follows the story of a young Amish girl whose older sister Anna is about to get married. The story discusses the traditions and customs of the Amish culture. They begin by telling you how young people go about dating, becoming engaged, and then announcing their engagement to the rest of their community. From here, Anna must pick a date, which is Amish culture must be in the month of November on either a Tuesday or a Thursday. After that, the author discusses the procedure for the actual wedding day which includes excessive cooking, baking, and preparing for many guests. The book does a good job of incorporating Amish sayings and songs, such as “Lob Lied” which is a traditional hymn. In addition to this, the book mentions certain traditions that accompany an Amish wedding. For example, the sister places a wood broom under Anna’s door, so that when she crosses out of her room she is signifying her transition from maiden to homemaker. Finally, the book discusses what happens following an Amish wedding, and what the newlyweds do. For example, they do not go on a honeymoon. Instead the visit relatives each weekend to receive their wedding gifts. NCSS Theme  Culture PA Standard  Describe the human characteristics of **places** and **regions** using the following criteria: Topics  Culture, differences, traditions, weddings, family, customs, language Grade Level  3-5th grade Suggested Method of Use  In my opinion, this would make a terrific book to have in your classroom as an option for students to read on their own. The book is full of very useful information. In addition to this, in an area such as Shippensburg where there is a large Amish community, I think this would be a topic of interest among students. Going along with that, in an area where there is little to no Amish community, it might be very enlightening for students to read about a culture that may be very different from their own.
 * Culture