| Booktalk
#1
Kit Tyler
reaches Connecticut colony in 1687 on brig Dolph from Barbados where she
has
grown in style with well read grandfather. She lives with her aunt and
cousins and is introduced to stark life of making flax, cornmeal and fires
for soap making. She befriends an old Quaker woman, Hannah Tupper, as does
Nat Eaton, the captain's son. Kit is accused of witchery and Nat comes
to her rescue when her own fiance ignores her need. She goes off with Nat
as he readies his new boat and leaves her family after having successfully
brought Hannah to safety and her cousin out of sickness. This is a good
book to get a sense of colonial life.
Booktalk
#2
When her grandfather dies, Katherine “Kit” Tyler leaves the prosperous
life she has known in Barbados to live with her aunt in the Connecticut
Colony in April of 1687. Kit has been raised to be a free spirit and has
a hard time understanding the closed minds and prejudice of the Puritans.
She has a major adjustment to make as her new surroundings are bleak, and
the Puritan ways are oppressive compared to her life in the Caribbean.
When Kits meets the Widow Tupper, a Quaker who is believed to practice
witchcraft, they become close friends and Kit visits often to find refuge
from the loneliness she feels in her new life. Their friendship has unexpected
consequences, however, when Kit is accused of also being a witch after
helping the Widow Tupper escape from the angry townspeople. Called before
the town council, Kit is accused of actions and works of the devil which
supposedly have caused illness and death to fall upon many innocent children
of the town. Banishment, hanging or branding is sure to follow, a fitting
punishment for one accused if witchcraft. Is there anyone who will step
forward to prove her innocence and rescue this young and adventurous colonial
misfit?
Relive the harsh and rigid customs of this 1600 New England Colony and
come to understand that prejudice and ignorance can have dire consequences
regardless of the time period. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth
George Speare. 1959 Newbery Award Winner. (Marsha Carlan. marshad_us@yahoo.com,
Benton Elementary School) |
