Witch Child
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Book Details
Written by Celia Rees.
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($8.99)
Editorial Review (from Amazon.com)
Enter the world of young Mary Newbury, a world where simply being different can cost a person her life. Hidden until now in the pages of her diary, Mary’s startling story begins in 1659, the year her beloved grandmother is hanged in the public square as a witch. Mary narrowly escapes a similar fate, only to face intolerance and new danger among the Puritans in the New World. How long can she hide her true identity? Will she ever find a place where her healing powers will not be feared?Just two weeks after publication, Celia Rees’s WITCH CHILD spirited its way onto the Book Sense Children’s Only 76 list as one of the Top 10 books that independent booksellers like to handsell. Within a month, this riveting book sold out its first two hardcover printings. Now, Candlewick Press is pleased to announce the publication of WITCH CHILD in paperback.
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Fence thinks this book is Worth Reading.
Mary doesn’t know her parents, she has lived her life with her grandmother. But in 1659 a witchfinder comes to her village and her grandmother is found guilty of witchcraft, by virtue of the fact that she floats in water, and killed. Mary might be next, but she is rescued by a mysterious, rich, well-dressed woman, and sent across the ocean in the company of some Puritans.
This novel was shortlisted for the in 2001, and I can see why. The first person narration, this is Mary’s diary afterall, allows us to see from her point of view. Yet despite this enough mystery remains over whether Mary herself is a witch. She doesn’t even know, not for sure.
But at the same time I was left wondering why exactly the diary format was chosen. A regular first person narration may have worked slightly better in places. But it does allow the author to pretend that this is a true story, so maybe that was the incentive?
Overall, it is a well told entertaining novel. Nothing spectacular, but worth a look.
The story is continued in Sorceress