Witches!
The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem
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Random House, Inc.
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor Book
2012 Notable Children's Books—ALSC
NCSS—Notable Social Studies Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2012
School Library Journal Best Books of 2011
SLJ’s 100 Magnificent Children’s Books … More »
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor Book
2012 Notable Children's Books—ALSC
NCSS—Notable Social Studies Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2012
School Library Journal Best Books of 2011
SLJ’s 100 Magnificent Children’s Books … More »
Random House, Inc.
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor Book
2012 Notable Children's Books—ALSC
NCSS—Notable Social Studies Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2012
School Library Journal Best Books of 2011
SLJ’s 100 Magnificent Children’s Books of 2011
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best 2011
In the little colonial town of Salem Village, Massachusetts, two girls began to twitch, mumble, and contort their bodies into strange shapes. The doctor tried every remedy, but nothing cured the young Puritans. He grimly announced the dire diagnosis: the girls were bewitched! And then the accusations began.
The riveting, true story of the victims, accused witches, crooked officials, and mass hysteria that turned a mysterious illness affecting two children into a witch hunt that took over a dozen people’s lives and ruined hundreds more unfolds in chilling detail in this young adult book by award-winning author and illustrator Rosalyn Schanzer.
With a powerful narrative, chilling primary source accounts, a design evoking the period, and stylized black-white-and-red scratchboard illustrations of young girls having wild fits in the courtroom, witches flying overhead, and the Devil and his servants terrorizing the Puritans, this book will rivet young readers with novelistic power.
Taught in middle and high schools around the U.S., the 17th-century saga remains hauntingly resonant as people struggle even today with the urgent need to find someone to blame for their misfortunes.
In addition to the Sibert Honor, Witches! has been honored by the Society of Illustrators with their Original Art Award Gold Medal, has been named a Notable book by both the American Library Association and the National Council for the Social Studies, and was chosen one ofSchool Library Journal's 100 Magnificent Children's Books and one of Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Children's Books.
Q&A with the Rosalyn Schanzer, the award-winning author of "Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem"
Q: How did you get interested in the Salem Witch Trials?
They were just too jaw-dropping to ignore. Who wouldn’t wonder why a four year old girl and three dogs were accused of being witches? Why were most people who confessed that they had committed the crime of witchcraft set free while just about everyone who proclaimed their innocence was imprisoned? Did a shadowy beast really spring up into the sky and split apart into the spirits of three different witches? The more material I dug up about this incredible story, the more curious I became.
Q: You have written and illustrated lots of books about history’s greatest heroes and adventurers. How was it different for you to write about witches instead?
Funny you should ask. I’ve always favored upbeat picture books about fascinating people I would love to meet; bold explorers, great escape artists, brilliant scientists, or powerful movers and shakers. But this new book is dark in every possible way. The entire story is about wickedness and superstition run amok. Even the artwork is mostly black. Would I like to meet the characters inside these pages? Only if I could be as invisible as the supposed spirits who were swooping through the air to torment their victims.
Q: What was the most unusual thing you learned while writing this book?
Everything about Salem in 1692 was far beyond unusual. The Puritans thought the devil and his witches lurked in every nook and cranny, just waiting to afflict innocent children with a dread disease. Unearthly phantoms claimed that they were murdered when a woman stared at them with her evil “eye beams.” Black hogs, gigantic dogs, and a winged creature with the head of a woman urged pious Puritans to sign the devil’s book. How could such things have happened?
Q: How did you do research for "Witches!"? Did
Baker & Taylor
Shares the story of the victims, accused witches, corrupt officials and mass hysteria that turned a mysterious illness affecting two children in Salem Village, Massachusetts, into a witch hunt that took more than a dozen lives and ruined hundreds more.
Baker
& Taylor
Shares the story of the victims, accused witches, corrupt officials, and mass hysteria that turned a mysterious illness affecting two children in Salem Village, Massachusetts, into a witch hunt that took more than a dozen lives and ruined hundreds more.
« Less
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor Book
2012 Notable Children's Books—ALSC
NCSS—Notable Social Studies Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2012
School Library Journal Best Books of 2011
SLJ’s 100 Magnificent Children’s Books of 2011
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best 2011
In the little colonial town of Salem Village, Massachusetts, two girls began to twitch, mumble, and contort their bodies into strange shapes. The doctor tried every remedy, but nothing cured the young Puritans. He grimly announced the dire diagnosis: the girls were bewitched! And then the accusations began.
The riveting, true story of the victims, accused witches, crooked officials, and mass hysteria that turned a mysterious illness affecting two children into a witch hunt that took over a dozen people’s lives and ruined hundreds more unfolds in chilling detail in this young adult book by award-winning author and illustrator Rosalyn Schanzer.
With a powerful narrative, chilling primary source accounts, a design evoking the period, and stylized black-white-and-red scratchboard illustrations of young girls having wild fits in the courtroom, witches flying overhead, and the Devil and his servants terrorizing the Puritans, this book will rivet young readers with novelistic power.
Taught in middle and high schools around the U.S., the 17th-century saga remains hauntingly resonant as people struggle even today with the urgent need to find someone to blame for their misfortunes.
In addition to the Sibert Honor, Witches! has been honored by the Society of Illustrators with their Original Art Award Gold Medal, has been named a Notable book by both the American Library Association and the National Council for the Social Studies, and was chosen one ofSchool Library Journal's 100 Magnificent Children's Books and one of Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Children's Books.
Q&A with the Rosalyn Schanzer, the award-winning author of "Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem"
Q: How did you get interested in the Salem Witch Trials?
They were just too jaw-dropping to ignore. Who wouldn’t wonder why a four year old girl and three dogs were accused of being witches? Why were most people who confessed that they had committed the crime of witchcraft set free while just about everyone who proclaimed their innocence was imprisoned? Did a shadowy beast really spring up into the sky and split apart into the spirits of three different witches? The more material I dug up about this incredible story, the more curious I became.
Q: You have written and illustrated lots of books about history’s greatest heroes and adventurers. How was it different for you to write about witches instead?
Funny you should ask. I’ve always favored upbeat picture books about fascinating people I would love to meet; bold explorers, great escape artists, brilliant scientists, or powerful movers and shakers. But this new book is dark in every possible way. The entire story is about wickedness and superstition run amok. Even the artwork is mostly black. Would I like to meet the characters inside these pages? Only if I could be as invisible as the supposed spirits who were swooping through the air to torment their victims.
Q: What was the most unusual thing you learned while writing this book?
Everything about Salem in 1692 was far beyond unusual. The Puritans thought the devil and his witches lurked in every nook and cranny, just waiting to afflict innocent children with a dread disease. Unearthly phantoms claimed that they were murdered when a woman stared at them with her evil “eye beams.” Black hogs, gigantic dogs, and a winged creature with the head of a woman urged pious Puritans to sign the devil’s book. How could such things have happened?
Q: How did you do research for "Witches!"? Did
Baker & Taylor
Shares the story of the victims, accused witches, corrupt officials and mass hysteria that turned a mysterious illness affecting two children in Salem Village, Massachusetts, into a witch hunt that took more than a dozen lives and ruined hundreds more.
Baker
& Taylor
Shares the story of the victims, accused witches, corrupt officials, and mass hysteria that turned a mysterious illness affecting two children in Salem Village, Massachusetts, into a witch hunt that took more than a dozen lives and ruined hundreds more.
« Less
Authors:
Schanzer, Rosalyn
Statement of Responsibility:
by Roaslyn Schanzer
Title:
Witches!
the absolutely true tale of disaster in Salem
the absolutely true tale of disaster in Salem
Publisher:
Washington, D.C. :, National Geographic Society,, c2011
Characteristics:
144 p. :,ill. ;,19 cm.
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Summary
Add a SummaryWhen 9-year-old Betty Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams began to twist and turn in the home of the Reverend Samuel Parris there was only one possible reason for it: witchcraft. And why not? This was Salem, Massachusetts where the Puritan populace knew anything was possible. What they didn’t know was that the afflicted girls would be joined by fellow accusers and launch the town, and even parts of the state, into a series of witch trials the land of America had never seen before. Rosalyn Schanzer tells it like it is, recounting many of the details, giving information on what happened to all the players when the dust settled and things got back to normal. Notes, a Bibliography, an Index, and a Note From the Author explaining how she abridged, updated, and clarified some of the original texts follow at the end.
Quotes
Add a Quote“Anyone could be a witch – your own mother or father, your best friend, your tiny baby brother, or even your dog. And you might never know who was in league with the Devil until it was too late.”
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Comment
Add a CommentNicely done non-fiction--reads more like a chapter book. One much appreciated feature was that it clearly differentiated between people of similar names--sometimes a little repetitive, but useful.
The cover? Enticing. The subject? Not off-putting. The overall presentation? Enthralling.
I have not read it yet, but i think it will be awesome!