The Bridge of Peace
Cindy Woodsmall
Waterbrook, Aug 31 2010, $13.99
ISBN: 9781400073979
All her young life, her birthmark on her cheek has been the talk of the Amish community where Lena Kauffman was raised. Over time she learned to ignore the stares. Currently, she teaches at an Amish School in Dry Lake that demands strict adherence to the “old ways”.
Lena has problems with the board’s inability to bend for the better good of the students. She especially has problems with a troubled pupil, fifteen year old recently transferred Peter; who is the oldest and tallest student she ever had. She turns to her Englischer friend Samantha a school counselor for help. This alienates the school board who blames her and her new ways of teaching for her student’s rebellion of authority. However school board member Grey Graber commiserates with his lifelong friend the beleaguered teacher and her mutinous student as he feels trapped too in a marriage with a wife Elsie who kicked him out of her life.
The second Ada’s House Amish romance (see The Hope of Refuge) is a wonderful refreshing contemporary that makes a strong case that the Plain People have psychological problems just like the English do. The lead couple, his wife and her student is fully developed characters with emotional baggage and issues as Cindy Woodsmall provides a strong fresh tale bolstered by a profound underlying statement that faith helps, but does not necessarily relieve personal concerns.
Harriet Klausner
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