Susannah

Susannah was just thirteen when her mother died. Then, to her dismay, her father decided the two would leave their Kentucky home and join a Shaker community in Ohio. Susannah hates life among the Shakers. They do not believe in families being together, and expect Susannah and the other children to forsake their ties to their parents and to the outside world. But Susannah defies all that. She is determined to help a little six year old girl, Mary, whose father has also decided to join the community with his child, escape and rejoin her mother in the outside world. But when given a chance for freedom, Susannah must choose between obtaining her own freedom or being there for little Mary. This sad, heart-wrenching novel explores issues of family, love, and loss, as a teenaged girl balances her own needs with that of the young girl entrusted to her care by a desperate mother. This is a must read!