This book is about a girl named Susannah who goes to live with the Believers and Shakers. Susannah's first stop on her flight is at the Golden Lamb tavern in Lebanon, Ohio, which is still in existence and serving weary travelers. This book was especially interesting to me as it detailed a fascinating period of religious fervor and persecution in the State of Ohio which has seen more than its share of these disputes. The Believers prevail and are left in peace - 'the mob simply unraveled, leaving the village untidy but unharmed.' Custody disputes were a major source of trouble between the Shakers and outsiders. The story is peppered with religious adages such as 'No one needs to wind God's clockwork' and 'God was parent enough' and there's also a tense episode when a local militia comes to remove some of the children. Susannah is approached by a great-aunt who wishes to take her away to Philadelphia, but she is also pulled by a strong bond to a young girl under her care whose mother hopes to remove her from the yoke of the Shakers. Readers will learn the basics of the Shaker faith which emphasized 'orderly ways of work and worship' and separated families from one another, man from woman, and child from parents. Susannah encounters many trials and tribulations including a crisis of faith that cause her sojourn in the village to be one of much conflict. 'In March of that year, my fourteenth year, a great wind blew down on the settlement at Turtle Creek, littering Sister Olive's garden plot with the limbs of trees.' The eponymous Susannah in Janet Hickman's interesting short novel has been brought to a Shaker community in Ohio in 1810 by her widower father who has become a Believer. I might still pop it up to five but I want to sit on it a bit and make certain I’m not giving it five stars for sentimentality. I considered giving this book five stars but in the end went with four. I’d love to read this story in a more developed and literary novel.ĥ.

This is yet another book that I wish had an adult equivalent book. While this is a work of fiction it gets the community and their conflicts with the outside world over child custody.Ĥ. Shaker history is endlessly fascinating to me. Susannah’s dad mourns the loss of his wife (her mother) and chooses to join a Shaker community. If you’re in the area you could eat dinner there tonight and be where (fictional) Susannah once was back in 1810.ģ. The Golden Lamb Tavern in Lebanon, Ohio is a real place. That’s a great story! That sticks with you through decades after one reading in your early teens.Ģ. I must have had it as a library book once. I realized about halfway through my read that I’d read and loved this back in the 1990s! I’d always remembered the story but had never recalled the author or title. Five things about Susannah by Janet Hickman.ġ.