Lilly Lapp Books- TOS Review

Baker Publishing Group generously offered the first 2 books in the Lilly Lapp series to review:

Life with Lily and A New Home for Lily

We were going to read these books as read-alouds. That didn't happen. We read one chapter together and then Flower took off with them, leaving me to go searching for them to write this review. Flower would wake up in the morning and read in her room till I called her down, take them upstairs near bed-time and read in her room until I turned off the light and sit on the porch, surrounded by her stuffed animals and read, read, read. She has spent the past couple of weeks regaling me with excerpts from the books, asking about various things she's reading, and letting me know that she might consider being Amish when she's older. Did she love these books? Yes, she did! Do I? Absolutely!

I tell you all of this because, while Flower loves to read, she hasn't jumped into chapter books on her own much. While she was initially overwhelmed by the page numbers of both (261 and 276 pages) once she was engaged in the story, page numbers didn't matter and she flew through both in a matter of weeks.

Each chapter was a different story, but the overall sense of the book was a comprehensive view of Lilly's life growing up as an Amish girl in modern America. Here's a Flower's take:

"I liked the characters. My favorite character would be the cow, Jenny. She said stuff through her eyes, and Lilly loved the cow. She was part of the family. Same with the dog. Jenny would get in to mischief and then act like nothing happened.

Lilly's very likable, and she's funny and loves animals. She kind of reminded me of myself. The funniest story was about her billy-goat (in the 2nd book) and Lilly gets stuck on the horns, she's panicking and the goat is trying to toss her around. The mom bursts out laughing at her and Lilly is like- why is she laughing?!"

These are delightful book that show a real slice of American life from the perspective of a Plain person. We'll be purchasing Books 3 and 4 in the series as soon as they hit the shelves. For a fun peek at what Lilly's life is like, check out The Adventures of Lilly Lapp and for more good reading, check out the authors blog: A Joyful Chaos.

Both books are available as paperback or ebook for $12.99 and are appropriate for upper elementary (though they'd be a great read-aloud for youngers and a great resource for those doing research at any age!).



Content -excellent
Presentation -excellent
Organization -excellent