Summary
Kit Tyler is orphaned and has no choice but to move from the Barbados to Connecticut to live with her Puritan relatives. She meets friends on the journey to Connecticut, but once she arrives she is met with disdain. She immediately generates suspicion when she dives into the frigid waters to save a doll for a small child. Only witches can float, in fact, that is one of the tests to determine if a woman is a witch. The suspect is thrown into the water: if she sinks she is innocent, if she survives she is a witch. Kit never really fits in with the community, nor with the family. Things get better when she begins teaching Dame School with Mercy. She finds that she is finally good at something. She also discovers an elderly woman, Hannah, that lives alone in meadow next to Blackbird Pond. Many people in the colony believe that Hannah is a witch. Kit is forbidden to see her, but she continues to sneak away to help the woman. She is helped by Nat, the young man that she met on her voyage to Connecticut. One day Kit notices that she is being watched while teaching Dame School. It was Prudence's doll that Kit rescued from the water. Prudence's mother will not allow her to attend Dame School so Kit begins secretly tutoring her at Hannah's cottage by Blackbird Pond. A serious epidemic strikes the colony and fear spreads like wildfire. The colonists believe that Hannah has cast a witch spell and is making everyone sick. Kit overhears plans to get rid of Hannah and sneaks away to warn her. Nat helps Hannah escape and Kit returns home. The next day it comes to light that Kit has helped Hannah and therefore she must be a witch also. She is arrested and must face trial. Prudence and Nat come to her rescue.
Speare, E. (1993). The witch of blackbird pond. New York: Dell Publishing.
My Impression
I have to admit, when I chose this book I expected it to be boring. I had a preconceived notion that since this book was about living in a Puritan colony it must be boring. Was I ever wrong! This is one of my favorite books that I have read so far this semester. I can't wait to recommend it to my students!
Reviews
#36 The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (1958)
53 points
53 points
Somehow I never read this one as a kid, and that fact hasn’t bothered me. But if you check out the 90-Second Newbery video of this title at the end of this post, you’ll be forced to agree with me when I say . . . where can I get that book?
School Library Journal described the plot as, “The setting is the Colony of Connecticut in 1687 amid the political and religious conflicts of that day. Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler unexpectedly arrives at her aunt and uncle’s doorstep and is unprepared for the new world which awaits her. Having been raised by her grandfather in Barbados, she doesn’t understand the conflict between those loyal to the king and those who defend the Connecticut Charter. Unprepared for the religious intolerance and rigidity of the Puritan community, she is constantly astounding her aunt, uncle, and cousins with her dress, behavior, and ideas. She takes comfort in her secret friendship with the widow, Hannah Tupper, who has been expelled from Massachusetts because she is a Quaker and suspected of being a witch. When a deathly sickness strikes the village, first Hannah and then Kit are accused of being witches. Through these conflicts and experiences, Kit comes to know and accept herself. She learns not to make hasty judgments about people, and that there are always two sides to every conflict.”
This was Speare’s second children’s novel. Silvey says that with this book, “After spending a year and a half working on the novel, Speare sent it to Mary Silva Cosgrave, the editor who had rescued her first book, Calico Captive, from a pile of unsolicited manuscripts. Cosgrave found the manuscript for The Witch of Blackbird Pond to be the most perfectly crafted she had ever seen. Because Speare had been so thorough in her research and in the way she had pieced the book together, Cosgrave suggested only one minor correction before the book went to press.”
It won the Newbery, of course, beating out The Family Under The Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson, Along Came A Dog by Meindert Dejong, Chucaro: Wild Pony of the Pampa by Francis Kalnay, and The Perilous Road by William O. Steele. But Silvey reports a shocking piece of news about that committee. “Although the details of the Newbery’s selection process usually remain confidential, the chair of the committee revealed that The Witch of Blackbird Pond won the Newbery Medal unanimously on the first ballot, an extremely rare event.” No secrets that year, I see.
Of course Lizzie Skurnick had to have her say about the book over at Fine Lines. A sample:
“What’s wonderful about Witch — and what distinguishes it, I think, from the American Girl novels I like to flog unmercifully because I don’t think novels should have branded stores with cafes that serve things like ‘American Girl Pasta’ — is that the narrative isn’t a flimsy cover for a history lesson, and neither is Kit a stand-in for heroic, spunky girls resisting the powers-that-be everywhere.”
Bird, E. (2012, May 30). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/05/30/top-100-childrens-novels-36-the-witch-of-blackbird-pond-by-elizabeth-george-speare/
Suggestions for Use in Library
- While reading the book (or after), research:
- Puritans
- Quakers
- Witch hunts/witch trials
- Pilgrim's Progress
- King Charles II of England
- King James II of England
- Horn books
- Dame schools
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