Joseph W. Yoder

Based on a true life story (the author is the son of the title character), it chronicles the life of an Irish baby whose mother dies shortly after she's born. The father leaves the baby girl with an Amish woman who is oa close friend of the family while he takes the rest of his children to Philadelphia to get them settled. Unfortunately, the father dies before he is able to retrieve his young daughter--so she ends up being raised by the Amish woman and eventually joins the Amish church, marries an Amish man, and raises her own family. (She does also eventually reconnect with her siblings.)

The reader gets to see Amish life from the viewpoint of someone who lived it. Some of the reasons behind Amish customs are explained but some, we are told they do them, but not told why the Amish choose to do them that way beyond "that is the way it is done". While I do agree that some traditions are worth keeping, I also think that continuing to do things only because it's "the way it's always been done" is not wise. There are times that change can be beneficial--so we need to evaluate what change is being proposed and why and then rationally decide if it is the right thing to do.

The book is honest about their being divisions in the Amish (and Mennonite) churches. Some want to keep things very conservative, others are more open to making changes if there is a rational reason for making them (for example only being able to wear white shirts vs. being able to wear colored shirts for work because they don't spoil as easily and are easier to get clean).

Since Rosanna was raised Amish, I was a bit confused when her adopted mother was encouraging her to be a teacher. I do understand it, since Elizabeth was concerned that Rosanna would have to support herself at some point. However, most Amish groups I know stop education at 8th grade. I would think more than an 8th grade education would be needed to be a teacher (unless they were talking about her being a teacher at an "only Amish" school, but I didn't get that sense--and I think there may have even been a sentence stating that the Amish hadn't started their own schools at this time.)

When Elizabeth got remarried, her second husband put the kibosh on Rosanna becoming a teacher.

But of Rosanna and Christli's 5 children only 1 joined the Amish church. (One died in infancy, so we can't know what she would have chosen.) The other 3 chose different paths, with two of them becoming teachers. I'm guessing since they never joined the church they weren't placed under the bann/shunned like they would have been if they'd joined the church and then gone against the Ordnung and pursued education. That isn't addressed in this book (though there is one report of a church member being asked to be placed under the bann and then being asked to be reinstated when he felt he'd truly repented.)… (more)

Rosanna of the Amish, which was originally published in 1940, was written to provide a more accurate picture of Amish life than what had been portrayed in books about the Amish. The book is a biography of Rosanna Yoder, a 19th century Amish woman, and her family, written by her youngest son. Rosanna was born into a Catholic Irish family, but, following the death of her mother, was raised from infancy by an Amish woman; later her birth siblings found her, but Rosanna remained Amish. Some of her interactions with her Catholic siblings are discussed. At first I thought that the writing about the Amish way of life "spoke down" to the readers as if they were children, and that there was too much repetition in the book. However, either I got used to the style, or the writing improved (or both). Soon I became very interested in the story, and enjoyed the book as a whole. I read the 1995 centennial edition (centennial of Rosanna's death), which contained both a short supplement about the different branches of the Amish religion and an updated bibliography.

A very good description of a people whose life style has not changed much over the years.… (more)