A New Home For Lily ~ Review

A New Home for Lily
The Adventures of Lily Lapp Book 2
By Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher

After reading book 1 ~ Life with Lily, I was very happy to review the second book in this delightful series.  Lily's family has moved from New York to Pennsylvania and Lily is adjusting to her new home and new school.

But new surroundings bring new problems.  Mandy Mast was left behind in New York, but Pennsylvania has Effie Kauffman and Aaron Yoder.  Lily struggles to remember Mama's advice that "it is much more important to treat others kindly than to think they have to be nice to you."

But Lily is growing up and having new adventures and learning along the way.  Lily starts helping Mama with some cooking and learns that Jell-O is not as easy to make as it looks when she makes some for Grandma Miller's birthday - lots and lots of Jell-O!  Lily's adventures in cooking continue with Thanksgiving pudding and stuffed eggs!  With Lily in the kitchen mealtime isn't boring.

Lily's new home bring new animals in the form of goats.  Goats are new and exciting and they are milked just like a cow.  But to Lily's amazement goat's milk is not good, instead tasting like the big billy goat smelled (I can totally agree with Lily's assessment of goat's milk and the flavoring of billy goat to it!).

Lily also learns that there are differences between New York and Pennsylvania Amish - different clothes, different head coverings, different ways of doing things, different dolls and even different jobs.

But through it all Lily is learning and growing as a person and she comes to realize that sometimes being a grown-up is difficult.  Lily also experiences death as she loses her Great-grandmother and birth as the Lapp family welcomes a new baby.

I would highly recommend this series to anyone looking for a Little House type book to share with their children.  This is recommended for ages 8 - 12, but I think it would be a great family time read-a-loud book.  This would also make an excellent series for home schoolers to include in their reading list.  You will be eagerly awaiting A Big Year for Lily when you finish A New Home for Lily!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review and all opinions are my own.

Available February 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.