TITLE: Katy’s New World #1
AUTHOR: Kim Vogel Sawyer
PUB DATE: February 2010
PAGES: 203

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Katy Lambright is given the opportunity to attend a secular high school outside her Mennonite community, she is ecstatic. But as Katy begins to adjust to life outside her community and begins to make decisions for herself, her relationships with her family and lifelong friends become strained. Can Katy balance her new world with the Old Order?

Katy has always enjoyed life in her small Mennonite community, but she longs to learn more than her school can offer. After getting approval from her elders, Katy starts her sophomore year at the public high school in town, where she meets new friends and encounters perspectives much different than her own. But as Katy begins to find her way in the outside world, her relationships at home become restrained. Can she find a balance between her two worlds?

MY THOUGHTS:

This is the first time I have heard of Kim Vogel Sawyer she is the author of numerous Christian fiction books. I am looking forward to reading more of her books.

I am always fascinated with the Amish/Mennonites and I love reading books based in that setting. This is a genre of books I discovered last year and I have to say I really enjoy reading them and I can devour them rather quickly.

Katy’s New World is the first book in the series. Katy is given a rare chance to attend a local high school. She is the first one in her community that has been given this rare chance. Katy loves school and learning.

Katy is just like any kid trying to fit in to a new school. It doesn’t help that she stands out dressed in her plain clothes. She is given an escort to show her around school and to help her out if she needs it. Her escort is Shelby. The girls soon become the best of friends which doesn’t sit will with her best friend Annika that she grew up with. Shelby’s father is a Baptist minister.

Through out the book you see Katy struggling with her faith and wondering how she will be able to remain true to her beliefs when she sees what the outside world is really like. She is like any other teenager struggling with life.

Will Katy be able to remain true to herself in a world of temptation?

You can check out Kim Vogel Sawyer on her website.

The second book in this series Katy’s Debate is schedule to be released June 2010. I can’t wait to read it. This is what book two is about:

Katy’s Debate is the second book in the Katy Lambright Series by bestselling author Kim Vogel Sawyer, which follows sixteen-year-old Katy as she adjusts to life outside her Old Order Mennonite community in Kansas. Katy’s dad is courting Rosemary Graber, and Katy decides to use her new debate skills to end the romance before it can go any further. At the same time, Katy is developing a crush of her own.

Katy Lambright’s life transforms when she leaves the Mennonite school and enters a local high school. Is she prepared to face the secular world and teenage life beyond her community? New Club, New Crush … New Mom? From bestselling fiction writer Kim Vogel Sawyer comes Katy’s Debate, the latest in the Katy Lambright series for young adults. Just as Katy is feeling settled in her new school, everything falls apart at home. Her father, believing she needs a mother, starts courting a woman Katy refuses to accept. Tensions rise as Katy schemes to send the woman packing. Meanwhile, the pressure builds at school as Katy joins the debate team, encounters a teammate’s scorn, and faces her growing feelings for a boy her father will never accept. Can Katy prove she doesn’t need a mother’s guidance even as she discovers more of what the world offers?

Thanks to Revell/Baker Publishing Group for sending me this book to read and review.