A Simple Song by Melody Carlson

I never knew that Melody Carlson wrote Amish-inspired stories! I know about her other series, but if it weren't for my mom and the fact that she wanted to read Melody Carlson, I'd never have known about this book.

A Simple Song is about Katrina, an Amish girl who loves singing. Unfortunately, her dad doesn't seem to approve. But he's also sick, and she finds out that if she enters a singing competition, she may be able to win enough money for his surgery. So, convincing her parents that this is part of her rumspringa, she enters the competition ... and we have the Amish-meets-English type of situation.

What I liked about this book were the songs that it introduced. One of them was One Tin Soldier, and I think it may become one of my favourite songs! I found a video on youtube, so enjoy:

I'm still trying to love Puff The Magic Dragon though. So far, I like the lyrics, but I don't feel touched by the song (then again, I couldn't make out the lyrics without subtitles).

This book isn't very fast-moving - there's no intrigue, no backstabbing and all that you'd expect from a talent competition, but it does have interesting characters. While I felt that the ending was a little contrived, I can see how it was the 'best' ending for Katrina.

While this isn't going to become one of my favourite Melody Carlson books, it's still a nicely written and sweet (if rather unexciting) book from her.