Lisa D. Weaver

As seen through the eyes of young Isaak, a fictional character living in Ukraine in the 1920s, Swords to Plowshares shares the historical account of John P. Klassen's work as a young art teacher. Klassen gathered bullets scattered through his village and showed young Isaak how to make molds and melt bullets to create a lead medallion. The medallion was then given to Mennonite Central Committee workers from North America in appreciation for the food and relief supplies sent to their village to ease the suffering and starvation resulting from the civil war. Through his art, Klassen shared a message of transformation from bullets to bread, from violence to peace, turning fear into courage and despair into hope.… (meer)

Approximately 3/4 of my ancestry is Mennonites who lived in what is now Ukraine before immigrating to the United States. (The rest were Mennonites who immigrated to the USA directly from what is now Poland without spending approximately 100 years in Ukraine.) [For further explanation, 41 of my direct ancestors immigrated from Ukraine to the USA between 1874 and 1878.]

This is the best book for introducing someone to "Russian" Mennonite history and culture; it is my go-to. It might ostensibly be a picture book for learning the alphabet, but I wouldn't recommend it for that purpose. It is full of words and photos/illustrations. It is as text-dense as the DK non-fiction picture books that I love so much, though this is a different format. I'd estimate that the total time to read every word is a good 15+ minutes, though you will probably want to really look at each picture/photograph of which there are many. 7 recipes are included; I haven't tested them, but they look fairly standard. (As if there is a standard recipe for peppernuts!!!) :D

I'd say that this book is roughly equivalent to walking through the Kauffman Museum on the campus of Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas. I had my significant other read this book and then go through that museum with me and now he is much better equipped to understand the culture that I grew up in. I own lots of other books about Mennonite history, particularly "Russian" Mennonite history, but this is my favorite for getting a fast overview.

As a disclaimer, the author's husband is my 4th cousin twice removed, but that doesn't influence my opinion of this book. Everyone wins when playing the Mennonite Game, though that game isn't explained in this book.… (meer)