Review of A Summer Secret

A Summer Secret by Kathleen Fuller is a Christian juvenile mystery of an Amish girl, thirteen-year-old Mary Beth, who discovers a barn and makes it her own secret place, away from her bothersome brothers. She seeks a way to escape and journal and sketch, even though her parents forbid her to go near the barn. Little does she know the adventure to ensue when she find out that another person may know of the barn. A person with a huge secret.

This book follows in the recent trends of Amish Christian fiction. It's only natural for trends in adult fiction to move to children's fiction. I loved learning more about the culture of these unique people and seeing how it all worked. The author provides an outsider's view to the customs of the Amish people, and I enjoyed that. The description is vivid and the characters pure. Characters learned from their mistakes and sought to be better. This book is true wholesome fiction.

Some problems I had with this book was that I felt like there was no real mystery about it. Many of the points in the storyline were obvious, and I never really felt like I was on the edge of my seat about what would happen next. Many times the story seemed a bit dull and drawn out. I read the whole book through, but it was difficult.

All in all, I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. I also recommend it to anyone age 8 up.

Specifics (from amazon.com):
Price: $9.99

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (May 18, 2010)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches 

NOTE: This book was provided freely to me by Thomas Nelson Publishers for reviewing purposes.

God Bless,