A Stone's Throw from Paradise [Hardcover]

Linda Oatman High (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

A summer in the Amish country where 12-year-old Lizzie's mother died is a dream come true. Throughout the summer, Lizzie faces unexpected struggles but learns about many things, about work, about her mother, about grief. She also learns surprising things about herself--and that there is no place like home.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9. Lizzie Zook is 13 and lost. Her mother died when she was only nine months old, and she doesn't fit in with her father's new wife and baby or the trailer park in which they live. She dislikes her stepmother and is sickened by her squirmy, smelly baby brother. When her Granny Zook needs help with her vegetable stand, Lizzie jumps at the opportunity to spend the summer in the Amish community where her parents grew up. However, readers will find that her search for her roots is hampered by bits and pieces of Amish life imposed upon an otherwise conventional plot line. The many descriptions of Amish food, particularly the ingredients, serve little purpose, and the girl's stereotypical view of the Amish as a perfect people is predictably shattered by the phone Granny Zook keeps in the barn loft and the occasional presence of Daniel, a boy who plays a radio and smokes cigarettes. Lizzie does discover information about her mother's relatives, but the book ends before any meeting takes place. Readers will be dissatisfied with the trite conclusion in which Lizzie suddenly likes her stepmother and no longer has an aversion to the baby. The prose, though engaging at times, is more often too melodramatic for readers to take this book seriously.?Linda Bindner, Athens Clarke County Library, GA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. Although there is no dearth of stories about the Amish, this first-person narrative is distinctive. Lizzie, whose parents left the Amish community when they married and were consequently excommunicated, is spending the summer with Amish Granny Zook. She wants to piece together an image of her mother, who died when she was just a baby. In helping her, Granny Zook risks her own excommunication. Readers will sense Lizzie's frustration as she tries to understand her loss and her father's remarriage and be intrigued by her descriptions of the hard life of the Amish. Despite occasional preciousness and overwriting, the story of Lizzie's reconciliation with her past is fully realized and convincing, as are her spunkiness, flippancy, and good humor. Shelley Townsend-Hudson

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802851479
• ISBN-13: 978-0802851475
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,492,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest portrayal of a preeteen., July 28, 2002

By 

KAT "bandbeast_2" (North TX, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Stone's Throw from Paradise (Paperback)

Lizzie had the weight of the world on her little shoulders. A mother she knew little about, a stepmother who loved fake flowers instead of real ones, a gross baby brother, and a grandmother she thought was a saint.

To escape her worries, Lizzie decides to spend the entire summer at Grandma Zook's farm in Paradise, Pennsylvania working at the Zook Nook to earn a little pocket money and hoping to find out more about her real mother. She finds a few other secrets she hadn't been looking for either.

The rude awakening Lizzie got was that the Amish did things the old-fashioned way, getting up before the sun to do the farm chores and making the items for the Zook Nook. I got a good laugh when Lizze complained about the chicken stink in the coop and the organic sounds and smell of an impolite cow. I also laughed when she found out what scrapple was made of.

But, life on the farm wasn't all that awful, Lizzie also found out the missing pie pieces to the mystery of her mother. She also realized that, even though the Amish tried to live perfect lives according to the Church Order, they were still human and fallible, even Grandma Zook.

After six weeks with Grandma Zook, Lizzie didn't think her life was all that bad either. Now that she had been on the farm, things at home were like paradise.

5.0 out of 5 stars GIFTED WRITER BRIDGES CULTURAL GAPS, May 14, 2006

By 

Teresa Morris "Teacher" (Coastal NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Stone's Throw from Paradise (Hardcover)

Awesome book! I'd highly recommend A Stone's Throw from Paradise not only for thoughtful teachers to explore within their respective classroom but for parents,grandparents,step-in-parents to share in clearing pathway towards opening meaningful discussions within FAMILY CIRCLES.

THIS book helps to clear pathway for building generational bridges among cultural groups in addition to healing cultural gaps on many levels.

3.0 out of 5 stars Lizzy Finds her Amish Past, July 30, 2000

By 

Bonnie McKinzie (Garden Grove, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Stone's Throw from Paradise (Hardcover)

Written for children or young adults, this book addresses loss of a parent, an unknown past, and making sense of events leading to the present.

Lizzy is a sad, young adolescent who loves her father and barely tolerates her stepmother and half brother. She longs to know about her real mother and her own homeland roots. Liz's mother and father were shunned for leaving the Amish and there was little to no continuation of her heritage. Consequently, her father arranges for her to spend the summer with his mother who still is Amish and runs Zook's Nook.

During the trip back home to Pennsylvania, memories surface and father and daughter re-live their beginnings as a family, before the untimely death of Lizzie's mother in a car wreck when Liz was but an infant. Their first stop was a cafe which played a huge part in her parent's lives. Then there came a trip to see the "little pink house" which was gone. Despondent, they searched, found and purchased the gingerbread-porch and lightening rods.

When Liz ends up staying part of the summer with her Amish grandmother, she learns those people are very hard workers with precious little fun or freedom. They work hard for long hours 6 days a week. Discovering a telephone hidden safely for years in her grandmother's hay barn, Liz learns that even Amish elders (and kids) have skeletons in their closets and have to make amends for past wrongs.

As Liz spends time in the attic searching for her past, she finds articles and asks questions which lead her closer to her deceased mother. She eventually is privy to pictures and letters. Finally, her dad comes back and takes her on a little pilgrimage to the church where her parents were married and her mother's funeral was held. The church has been turned into a tourist shop.

After staying with her grandmother only three weeks, Liz gradually becomes aware of what is important and whom she can trust and love. Somehow, she bridges the past with the present and returns home with a different outlook on life with her stepmother, baby brother and their "shiny submarine trailer house" that is suddenly HOME.