Header Promotion27. Witch Child (Witch Child, 1) - Celia Rees (Candlewick Press)
Series: 1st of the 2 book Witch Child series.
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Print Date: April 2002
Copyright Date(s): c2000
ISBN: 0763618292
Pages: 261
SERIES LIST:
Witch Child
Sorceress
BOOK DESCRIPTION (from http://www.celiarees.com/):
1659. A time of fear and persecution. Mary, granddaughter of a witch, keeps a diary. It begins: *I am Mary. I am a witch…*
She sees her grandmother hanged, is rescued by a stranger, takes ship for America and finds a place in a Puritan community there. All that befalls her, she records in her diary and as she writes, she stitches the pages inside a quilt for discovery would mean death. The quilt lies undisturbed for more than three hundred years. Then, during the process of conservation, the diary is discovered. Her story can be told.
AWARDS:
Prix Roman Millepages 2002 (France)
Prix Sorcières 2003 Awarded by l’Association des Librairies Spécialisées pour la Jeunesse – The Association of Booksellers specializing in books for young people (France)
Cento Literary Prize (Italy) second prize
Shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award 2001
Shortlisted for the North East Book Award (NEBA) 2002
COMMENTS:
Celia Rees has created a very real world. Written in first person, as if from the journal pages of a 14 yr old girl travelling from England to America with some Puritans in order to escape persecution, the reader is drawn in. The history feels so real. With young Mary, the reader can expereince both the need to be free and the caution and dread of being discovered and turned on. The descriptions had me thinking of Amish Acres, which I had a chance to visit this past year. I could read Celia Rees's book and picture the tiny houses, plain clothing, etc...
The story has a preface and afterward written by a fictional Allison Ellman that sets up the story as a manuscript found hidden in a quilt... a true piece of history. This allows for the sequel. What happened to Mary after the "Mary papers" end?
Jo
My blog: Books to the Rescue
This one sounds very
This one sounds very interesting.
I liked it. I was
I liked it. I was hesitant to start it (the whole persecuting people thing made me wary), but found myself becoming very absorbed in it one I started. I'm going to try reading some of her other books: one called Sovay another called Pirates!. From what I've read, it seems she does strong/brave young adult girls/women in historical settings well.
Jo
My blog: Books to the Rescue
Thanks Jo.
I'll have to remember to watch for her.