Customer Reviews

The Gift of Sarah Barker

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kudos to the independent bookseller Karen Weber at Amazon. Thank you for being a caring custodian of the out-of-print book The Gift of Sarah Barker. The story is such a wonderful way of sharing some insight into the Shaker culture with today's teens. The representation of quality was very fair and the service excellent.

Jane Yolen excels at getting to the heart of youthful quandaries. When her mother, guilt-ridden and nearly psychopathic, flees with Sarah to a Shaker commune, Sarah does her best to embrace the Shaker ethos. . . but deep in her heart, she yearns for something more than the absolute separation of males and females, something more than the required platonic relationships demanded by the Shaker traditions. Plagued by guilt for wanting more than mere friendship, knowing that she can never love a male and remain a Shaker, she faces a decision that will change her entire life, that could doom her to perdition, that will shatter her world. Yolen demonstrates the agony of such a choice and of its consequences without "prettifying." Short but powerful, and uplifting even through Sarah's pain.

--Telestai

I found this book very exciting and entertaining, allthough a bit heavy at times. It is appropriate for (and can be understood best at)ages 13-14, I would say. Also,it would be best to research the Shaker religion (which the book is about) before reading it. It makes more sense that way.

The Gift of Sarah Barker by Jane Yolen was a really good book. It teaches you a lot about the culture of the Shakers. I liked how the author gave so much information on a culture that is now almost gone, and put in a good story to make it intriguing. Sarah and Abel fall in love, in a Shaker community where it is forbidden, when Sarah forgets her stockings on Holy Hill and Abel finds them. Of course they need to be returned, and so they meet together at night. They continue sneaking out to meet each other and their love continues to grow. It is hard to live such a terrible secret and they had to find a way to get away. I found myself rooting for Sarah and Abel and wanting to not put it down once I started reading it. This book should be read by many others.

I found this book very exciting and entertaining, allthough a bit heavy at times. It is appropriate for (and can be understood best at)ages 13-14, I would say. Also,it would be best to research the Shaker religion (which the book is about) before reading it. It makes more sense that way.

I read, "The Gift of Sarah Barker," written by Jane Yolen. This book is about is about this young girl and this young boy. The young girl is named Sister Sarah and the boy is named Brother Able. They both live in the same Shaker community where it is a sin to even talk to the opposite gender. If you are not a Mother or Father of the community. Somehow through it all Sarah and Able find love. They must keep it a secret though or they will be thrown out of their community. If I were to rate this book on a scale from one to five. I would give it a four. Thats because there were alot of attention grabbers. It was defanatally a girls book. The reason why I think that this book is a girls book is because it's sappy, mushy, and a love story kind of book. It reminds me of "Romeo and Juliet" by Willianm Shakespear. I would love ot read this book agian...

This novel not only illustrates the strangeness and strictness of an early American Shaker community, but tells the tale of a forbidden romance that blossoms between two of its young followers. Sarah and Abel face a decision together that seems to shatter everything they have held dear.

I thought that this book was easy to read and enjoyable. It had caught my interest and it also gave me alittle knowledge of how most of the people adapted in the new developing land now called the United States of America. I think everyone should have a chance to read this book because it shows a lot of different additudes and customs when first settling in this land, that has now changed throughout the years.