Escape from Heart

In this mostly flat first novel about upheavals in a Mennonite colony in northeast Mississippi, Sarah Ruth Heart, age 14, describes the curious events that lead up to her having to temporarily ""find refuge"" in the outside world. Sarah Ruth's uncle, Hezekiel, is the leader of the colony--and despite his righteous talk, he is very clearly the villain here. He refuses to send the colony's children to school, embezzles community funds and consorts with a young widow, all the while painting himself as a hero (he gets medicine for a sick baby; he rescues a woman from a fire--a fire he himself set). Sarah Ruth is determined to compete in a local spelling bee, and her actions contribute to a series of contrived events that culminate in Hezekiel's downfall and the restoration of Heart Colony. While the juxtaposition of a Mennonite community with what Sarah Ruth calls ""the modern world"" provides some obvious tensions, neither setting has depth. Characters tend to be either good or bad, and the Mennonites' faith receives very little attention--their way of living as portrayed here seems more idiosyncratic than an expression of a belief system. Sarah Ruth's voice can be jarringly mature: referring to a gas spill in town, she observes, ""The gas was now fully soaking into the ground, and there no longer was such a direct danger of fire, but a bigger environmental danger."" Ages 12-up. (Oct.)