Review: The Tomato Patch - Sarah Price

 

 

Review: The Tomato Patch - Book #1 The Amish of Ephrata Series - July 2012

It's been a long time since I read an Amish fiction story, I read a lot of them around 2010-2013 and then my Amish fiction reading went dark. Of course, in my mission to clear my old kindle books, I stumbled upon Sarah Price's The Tomato Patch. The Tomato Patch is a YA novel that features the taboo topic of Bullying within the Amish community and how jealousy can turn someone's spirit dark and ugly.  The book features two girls Susie and Priscilla. Priscilla is such a sweet character who you can tell loves her family, gardening, and helping out when needed. Susie, on the other hand, is boastful and loves being the best and the attention she receives from it and woe anyone who tries to take it from her. When a charity auction with the Mennonites comes to town, Priscilla's brother Jonas nominated her to share her tomatoes and vegetables as an auction item. In the past Susie has always won "best tomatoes" and now with Priscilla's crop, she has some competition and she isn't happy about it and will start spreading nasty rumors about Priscilla to the other girls and families in the community. Of course, though some of the community can see through Susie's lies and Priscilla does the right thing by praying despite her heartbreaking from the bullying. What I loved about this book too was the sermon that the Bishop preached on to do with this matter as it showed exactly what an Amish community represents.