The Witch of Blackbird Pond

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel set back in the late 1700's when the Puritans were accusing women of being witches. Elizabeth George Spear, the author, weaves a wonderful tale full of excitement, romance, prejudice and loyalty.

The story is about a girl around the age of 16 named Kit. She was raised by her wealthy grandfather in Barbados. He allows Kit the freedom of a happy childhood as she runs freely on the island, basking in the sun and learning to swim. Yet she is taught properly, learning to read and how to be refined. When her grandfather dies she must sell all of his land and possesions to keep the creditors at bay. She leaves the island of Barbados with only her trunks of fine clothing to go and live with her aunt and uncle in Connecticut, her only living relatives. She boards a ship alone, but soon makes friends with the captains' son, Nat.

Kit is seen as strange and exotic when she comes to America. The Puritans immediately judge her as odd and thus she must be a witch. For an entire year Kit works hard to fit in but she is like an exotic bird being pecked to death by a bunch of pigeons.

Another important theme of this book is the importance of learning to read. Kit is taught to love reading, especially Shakespears' plays by her grandfather. The Puritans look upon reading anything other than the scriptures as an idle waste of time and thus of the devil. They also think that reading should be used only to improve ones sinful nature and to worship God, all other reading was wrong. Kit can not understand their views and makes many mistakes with the children of the village while teaching them to read. In the end, Kits' view of reading is given some credit.

This is an exciting historical novel that has many true to life characters from Connecticuts' earliest years. It is no wonder that it has won the Newberry Medal Of Honor. I came a way with a real sense of how wrong it is to judge others merely because they are different. So many times people are thought of as dirty, stupid, lazy or scary just because they are different than us. This is a great book written for teenagers, but I loved it and would recommend it for any age.