Witness

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Summary: Witness
Review: Witness Review
By: Megan Drazek
Karen Hesse's newest novel, Witness, is a five star book for numerous reasons. One is the creativity and effort put into every free verse poem by Karen Hesse. Witness is a book that you think about after every page.

Eleven different characters say what they think about the events that take place throughout the novel. These characters are the town constable Percelle Johnson, 18 year old Klan member Merlin Van Tornhout, shop owners Harvey and Viola Pettibone, Fitzgerald Flitt who is the doctor, news paper editor Reynard Alexander, the scary Klan member preacher Johnny Reeves, Iris Weaver the independent restaurant owner and rum runner and Sara Chickering a farmer. Two very important girls in the story are an African-American 12 year old Leanora Sutter and a six year old Jew Esther Hirsh. Karen Hesse developed these characters extremely well.

Witness takes you back to 1924. As I read this book I felt like a character in the small town fighting against the Ku Klux Klan. When Esther Hirsh and her farther come from New York to live with Sara Chickering they are threatened by the Ku Klux Klan to move out of her home. More threats or sent to other people in the town as well. Can the town's people work together to save each other from the Klan.

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Summary: High praise from a high school teacher
Review: I needed a book to teach about the rise in Klan membership from the 1920's. We just finished reading this novel in a reader's theater in my history class. I immediately ordered Out of the Dust, Mrs. Hesse's Newberry novel for us the read about the depression. Reading this in class has been one of the most rewarding experiences in a long career. I almost sound like a missionary trying to spread the word about buying a class set and reading it together.
I wrote up a guide and photocopied the pictures of the characters with the questions underneath. I also obtained a number of pictures of cross burnings and Klan pictures. In my classes, the part of Esther (the 6 year old Jewish girl) has been read by a Jewish girl and Johnny Reeves the fanatic rascist has been read by an African American student. There are some really sensitive and moving parts of this book--including Leonora, the black girl, who discovers that the old civil war veteran whom she works for is NOT blind--and has been aware that she is black all along. The part about the old Yankee Veteran fighting off the Ku Klux Klan with his cane (that he made in Andersonville, no less) is a marvel. I still picture the old coot standing guard with Leonora so the Klan can't put an Armistice Wreath on the cenotaph. Thank you Karen Hesse for a marvellous, spiritual experience.

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Summary: The Witness
Review: Wow!The Witness written by Karen Hesse a Newbery award winner for this book.Also the author of Out of the Dust.This was a great book.It didn't have any capital letters in it but it was still a great book.The Witness is about a 12 year old African-American girl named Leonora Sutter and a 6 year-old Jewish girl named Esther Hirsh and how their lives changed when the Ku Klux Klan moves into their small town in Virginia.The KKK does not want any one out of their rase, color or religion,so they first try to kill the Sutters by poisoning their well,but the person they sent doesn't do it.At the same time a person shoots Esther's dad trying to shoot Esther.They blamed it all on the guy who tried poisoning the Sutter's well but Leonora is the only witness there that saw him.I think you should read this book to see who really shot Esther's dad!

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Summary: Witness
Review: In Witness, Karen Hesse gives the reader a glimpse into small-town Vermont in the 1920's, as the Ku Klux Klan attempts to infiltrate the area. Through 11 very different voices of the town's inhabitants, from 6 year old Esther Hirsch to outspoken preacher Johnny Reeves, we can feel apprehension, excitement, approval, indecision, anger, and fear as the story progresses and the Klan attracts some townspeople and alienates others.

The novel is beautifully written in free verse, like Hesse's Out of the Dust, and is really a collection of personal observations and dialogs in distinct voices. The story that the voices create is so sparse that it sometimes leaves the reader wanting more detail, more interaction between characters, and more loose ends tied up. The author effectively depicts the different attitudes of the townspeople toward the KKK, however, and how they feel their lives might be affected as the organization comes into town portraying itself as a fine, upstanding group that upholds moral values. We are reminded how something like this might seem innocuous to some at first, and how some rationalize that the good will outweigh the bad. Most of the people in town are white and Protestant, but a few of them, along with the few black and Jewish citizens know the dangers the Klan brings. It is effective, too, that we never actually meet any of the Klansmen that have come into town: they can be both as elusive and as threatening as the secret society they are a part of.

The novel could easily be read in one sitting, read aloud as a reader's theater, or used in a class to generate discussion or supplement works that cover this time period. The novel is written in five "acts," and a collection of photos and brief character descriptions precedes the text. Several historical references are made that children, and even some adults, will not recall, and some may be inspired to do some extra research. A good point was made by a previous reviewer-that an appendix or afterward that gives some background, explanation, or resources would be a great addition to the book.

Because of its thought provoking subject matter and writing style, the book will be appealing to teen and adult readers as well as older children to who it seems to have been directed.

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Summary: A Community Speaks
Review: Alternating voices tell the tale of the Ku Klux Klan's infiltration of a small Vermont town in 1924. As in her Newberry award winning Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse employs free verse to give voice to the cast of eleven characters. Men, women and children from various ethnic backgrounds and segments of the community relate their reactions to the Klan's presence in their town. The two youngest narrators, six year old Esther and twelve year old Lenora are targets for the Klan. Esther is the daughter of a Jewish shoe salesman and Lenora is African-American.
Though initially cloaking their activities behind benevolent morality, the Klan succeeds in creating dissension among the community. Hesse deftly illustrates how the Klan is capable of playing upon individual prejudices and fears, turning neighbor against neighbor. The divisiveness the Klan's presence creates in town is symbolized in the characterizations of husband and wife shopkeepers, Viola and Harvey Pettibone. Harvey is seduced by Klan rhetoric and joins their ranks whereas Viola is troubled by the Klan's activities. Hesse's spare language effectively creates tension that propels the tale while conveying the variety of individual emotional responses to the situation.
Written in five acts, Witness would make a good choice for reader's theater.

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Summary: Eleven Witnesses to Evil
Review: Karen Hesse, Newberry Medal winner for Out of the Dust, returns to free verse to capture the trauma the inhabitants of a sleepy Vermont town of 1924 experience at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan. This powerful drama is revealed through the voices of eleven townsfolk who evolve as the action unfolds. While at first the Klan is almost welcomed in the Prohibition-era town since they represent a kind of morality, their motives are quickly revealed and the town struggles in the aftermath of their actions regarding the youngest members of the town, Leanora Sutter, a twelve-year old African-American girl, and Esther Hirsh, a six-year old girl, who is Jewish. Hesse has added real-life events to the voices of the characters, which gives readers greater historical context. Younger readers who are unfamiliar with this era may need support with the history and issues of the time period. The verse is divided into five acts and would be fine for a reader's theater production. (Ages 12 and older)

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Summary: Hopeful Realism
Review: Gr. 5-9. As the Klu Klux Klan begins to take hold in a small 1924 Vermont town, its reality is slowly revealed through the observations of a diverse and colorful set of characters. Hesse uses clear and uncluttered free verse to convey the voices of 11 very different citizens who serve as our witnesses to this poignant and timeless story. Two little girls, Leonora Sutter, a 12-year-old black girl, and Esther Hirsh, a 6-year-old Jewish girl, are both new to town, and feel both the sting of the growing racism and the love of supportive friends. Adult characters vary from a preacher filled with fear and self-righteousness, to an 18 year old man who transforms rage to regret. Other characters, including a married couple, demonstrate realistic complications. Using humor at first, the couple half-heartedly argues because the man wants to join but the woman does not. As the situation grows more serious, the couple, and the rest of the town, must take an honest look at the violent and evil things that are beginning to take place. Within the fear and darkness of this book resides hope though, represented by a woman who refuses to send away Esther and her father, even after being threatened, a skinny old white man who stands up to the Klan at the courthouse, and a newspaper man who will not be bullied into whitewashing the Klan's activities with secrecy or lies. This is an excellent look at a very complicated issue that deals with real people.

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Summary: A Powerful Story
Review: Witness is a good story told through several different voices about the KKK moving into a small Vermont town and how the town deals with them. The one problem I had with it was that while it had a good storyline it was a little too simplified. However, it was a good book and I recommend you read it

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Summary: Historical fiction told through powerful voices.
Review: The United States is dealing with World War II and the uprising of the Ku Kux Klan. But in one particular city, a silent war rages inside the hearts of the diverse and extraordinary characters who play a role in Karen Hesse's unforgettable novel.
Six-year-old Ester Hirsh, who sees and feels a lot more than a child is supposed to see and hear, fears that the Ku Kux Klan will target her or those she cares about. Sara Chickering, who watches her, feels a little the same. And as for Leonara Sutter, the valiant twelve-year-old African American whose struggles exist not only because of discrimination but because her life is in danger, is drawn into the lives of those who would have never expected to regard her -- Johnny Reeves, the demented and lost soul who found the way out in a rather unexpected way, and little Ester Hirsh. These are a few of the appearing characters narrating this excellent and powerfully written novel of the war. Their voices and messages are strong, and the diversity of the characters is what makes Witness stand out as an amazingly well-written novel.

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Summary: Mother of a nine-year old from Canada
Review: I have just listened to my nine-year old read this book out loud to me. The book was difficult for her to read by herself, being unfamiliar with the concepts in the book and finding the free verse style unusual at first and she was prepared to give up on the book. This is why she ended up reading it out loud to me. With some orientation from an adult, she then found the book to be fascinating and she put a lot of thought into which of the characters 'made sense' and 'who acquired some sense as the story went on.' This book was probably her first real introduction to the concept of racism. As a parent, I did not know how bad things were going to get in the book, and thus did not know what I might be exposing her to. That is the other reason why I wanted to read it with her, to be able to support her in case there were very traumatic things in the book.

The book proved to be interesting and the content was apppropriate for a nine year old to be exposed to. It was a time of parent-child sharing. It has provoked discussion and will cause us to further expolore these issues and even look up a bit more about some of the details. The 'free verse format' actually worked out very well as the book moved quickly and could be read in a few settings even by a nine year old. By reading it out loud there were lots of opportunities to learn about new words and practice pronunciation. I highly recommend this book.