Hannah is a widowed lady of nearly fifty, with most of her children married and gone. Finding her daughter Susanna has vanished at night is a real scare for her, because Susanna has Down's Syndrome. Trusting the Lord will forgive her state of dress, Hannah runs down the country road in search of her daughter.

HANNAH'S COURTSHIP begins that night, though she doesn't realise it for a while. A Mennonite neighbour, Albert Hartman, who is the local veterinarian finds the missing Susanna and walks Hannah home. He had too much study and effort in qualifying and setting up his practice to find the right lady and marry. Now in his fifties, he thinks his life is missing a family. Hannah teaches school - while this job is usually for Amish maidens, she needed work after her husband's death. Young Susanna left the house to meet a local boy who also has Down's, called David. While their parents love these children dearly, what can their future hold?

I liked to see that Hannah also runs a community library from an outbuilding, and I really enjoyed the introduction of alpacas to the story. These gentle creatures are prized for their wool, which some Amish ladies spin and weave. An aunt driving up in her buggy is enough to make Hannah's day, because with this by-chance chaperone she is able to invite Albert to join her for dinner. In this fashion we come to understand the customs which guide these dignified people's lives. An entertaining twist comes when each unmarried lady prepares a supper basket for a school fund- raising auction and whoever buys it may join the lady to share the meal. Guessing which basket Hannah has sent, several farmers bid - but is it her farmland acres that really interest them?

Courtship has different meanings to different cultures. While we might think the rules strict for mature persons, Hannah has followed them all her life. In school we see that a pink lunchbox is not allowed because all children have to have black ones. Hannah believes that all little girls really want to be exactly like their friends. She's wrong, in my case certainly, and this does seem like curtailing freedom of expression. I was pleased to see that the children get to visit a zoo. Emma Miller has tried to present several sides of the issue in this informative, pleasant romance, which brings more than a few dilemmas during HANNAH'S COURTSHIP.