Like the Willow Tree

Like the Willow Tree

The Diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce

Lois Lowry

Here I am writing a second book report on a “Dear America” book. I’m not going to write much about this book, because it’s very hard to explain – you have to read it yourself!

I will say that Lydia is a young girl growing up with her family – mom, dad, older brother, and baby sister. Even though this is very hard to write (And I think it was hard for Lowry to write it too (This is very sad, so if you cry a lot go get a tissue, I’ll wait.) her whole family except her brother dies.

So, she is sent to live with her uncle without taking anything with her. But, it seems her uncle doesn’t like her very much because soon he gets rid of her. She is sent to live with a group called the Shakers (like the Amish) so they can take care of her until she is old enough to live by herself.

At first she doesn’t want to get used to the Shaker way of life – she doesn’t want to give her favorite and only book to the shelf that Sister Jenny reads from, she doesn’t want to give up her ring – which had once been her grandmother’s and was the only thing she had to remind her of her family. She also can’t get used to the fact that boys and girls are separate from each other, so she can’t see her brother.

But later she makes friends and they allow her to have a meeting with her brother. In other words she gets used to it and accepts it.

In the Epilogue it says she was going to stay with the Shakers but, changed her mind after she went to college and fell in love, since Shakers can’t get married she quit the Shaker way of life.

B.T.W. (by the way) When Lydia left the Shakers Sister Jenny gave Lydia back her grandmother’s ring.

You really should read the book it will get into your heart just like “A Time for Courage”.

And that’s another Bookworm Promise :)!