A World Away by Nancy Grossman -400 pages
Book Blurb:
A summer of firsts: Sixteen-year-old Eliza Miller has never made a phone call, never tried on a pair of jeans, never sat in a darkened theater waiting for a movie to start. She’s never even talked to someone her age who isn’t Amish, like her. A summer of good-byes: When she leaves her close-knit family to spend the summer as a nanny in suburban Chicago, a part of her can’t wait to leave behind everything she knows. She can’t imagine the secrets she will uncover, the friends she will make, the surprises and temptations of a way of life so different from her own. A summer of impossible choice: Every minute Eliza spends with her new friend Josh feels as good as listening to music for the first time, and she wonders whether there might be a place for her in his world. But as summer wanes, she misses the people she has left behind, and the plain life she once took for granted. Eliza will have to decide for herself where she belongs. Whichever choice she makes, she knows she will lose someone she loves.
My Review: 3.5
I was able to fly through this book. I love stories about the Amish as my Jewish great-grandfather was brought up by the Amish in Pennsylvania. Although I love many YA books, this one felt very much written only for that audience. The language was quite simple and the author left very little for the reader to figure out for themselves. There were a few twists and turns, all slightly predictable, but I still loved the story. There is only good to learn when we read books about a different, simpler life, especially when there is a choice into living that way.
Quotes I liked:
When we choose to be different, we have to expect a little attention.
-“We can do without things easier than we can do without people.”
– “To me, poetry seemed like urgent stories, cut to their bare bones.”
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