The Witch Of Blackbird Pond - By Elizabeth George Speare ( Paperback )

About the Book

In this Newbery Medal-winning novel, a girl faces prejudice and accusations of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Connecticut.

Book Synopsis

In this Newbery Medal-winning novel, a girl faces prejudice and accusations of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Connecticut.

Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1687. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place. Just when it seems she must give up, she finds a kindred spirit. But Kit's friendship with Hannah Tupper, believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves more taboo than she could have imagined and ultimately forces Kit to choose between her heart and her duty.

Review Quotes

"The book has a lively plot and excellent characterizations. The background has every dimension of reality." The New York Times

"Rarely has a book taken us back into seventeenth-century life as this does." The New York Herald-Tribune

Strong plot, fully realized characters, and convincing atmosphere distinguish this historical narrative. Booklist, ALA

About The Author

ELIZABETH GEORGE SPEARE (1908-1994) won the 1959 Newbery Medal for The Witch of Blackbird Pond and the 1962 Newbery Medal for The Bronze Bow. She also received a Newbery Honor in 1983 for The Sign of the Beaver, and in 1989 she was presented with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her substantial and enduring contribution to children's literature. Of her beginings as a writer working on Witch of Blackbird Pond she said: Then one day I stumbled on a true story from New England history with a character who seemed to me an ideal heroine. Though I had my first historical novel almost by accident it soon proved to be an absorbing hobby.