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Summary: Great for Teachers
Review: Fabulous book! I have always been interested in witchcraft trials, and was about to begin The Crucible with my American Literature students when I ran across Witch Child. I read it voraciously. My students and I had dicussed the history of the Salem witchcraft trials before we began The Crucible, and as I read Witch Child, I shared passages with my class. They were immediately enthralled by Mary's entires. Many even went out and purchased the book. That says a lot! Students don't normally purchase a book of free will. Highly recommended. Gives a great feel for what life must have been like for the Puritans as they began to establish lives in the colonies.
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Summary: Insights into the 17th Century
Review: Witch Child is a chunk of Mary Newbury's life, taken from her diary that is carefully hidden, each page separately, in a quilt. Mary first tells us about how her Grandmother is arrested and executed for witchcraft, and feelings of the heat of suspicion fall upon her. Luckily, she is saved do to a wealthy woman who sends her off to America, in hopes of finding a new life with a new name. The readers are also there with Mary when she takes that fated boat trip into the New World. While on the boat, she finds a confident who becomes a surrogate mother type to help her through her trials, and to live with in the new colonies. Befriended by a Native American young man and taking expeditions into the forest alone, catches the eyes of too many leaders of the community. The suspicions of witchcraft follow her across the Atlantic Ocean, only to be haunted by the very man that condemned her Grandmother. Due to his arrival in the community, Mary is forced to flee. The ending to this climatic exit leaves you salivating for more. Making you question, "Where is she going; what is she going to do; how is she going to survive?" This book is an amazing insight into the 17th century witch hunt phenomena. Celia Rees does an amazing job of enlightening readers on the feelings and emotions that one of the witches condemned, back in Salem hundreds of years ago, might have felt while under suspicion. This book is also threaded throughout with historical facts and can give those learning about the century an insight into what it might have been like to live during that time. Rees gives us an amazing, well-developed character to experience all of these elements through.
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Summary: A New Perspective
Review: Usually when a book about the Inquisition, Salem, or other witch hunts is published, the main characters are not witches and never claimed to be. Witch Child is different because Mary is a witch and freely admits so; this makes her even more vulnerable to persecution and makes the heroine even more sympathetic. Written in the form of Mary's journal, the reader has a firsthand account that not only draws you in to Mary's life, but the entire workings of the Puritan society. The book's strongest area is the opening, which reveals and shrouds Mary's narrative. Rees has written one of the best expositions in this genre.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Description--plot falls flat
Review: I felt that once the wonderful beginning was over, I could anticipate what would happen next many chapters ahead. Witch Child has lovely description and carefully drawn characters, but no new thoughts on its subject.
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Summary: Unique
Review: I am half way through the book and let me tell you one thing. This book is unique. It is one of the best books I have read. The way it is written (even though paragraphing and grammer was changed) makes it stand out and screams real. I have always been interested in the Witch Trials and this book lets you see how someones life was torn apart because of people that were scared and had no hearts. This book is a one of a kind and extrodanary.
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Summary: Whoo Hoo!! There's gonna be a sequel!!!
Review: Read this last night in one sitting and was duly impressed. Very concise writing, wonderful storyline, and memorable characters. When I was a kid, Shirley Jackson's "Witchcraft of Salem Village" had been my favorite book.....this is almost even better. I love the whole secret history hidden in a quilt concept...very mysterious and reminds kids that history is NOT always what it seems to be. (Don't get me started on Richard III).Anyways, exquisite book, a gazillion thumbs up, and waiting anxiously for the sequel.
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Summary: A COMPELLING STORY EXPRESSIVELY READ
Review: This compelling and sometimes heartbreaking story is given an indelible reading by British actress Jennifer Ehle. A Tony Award winner for her performance in "The Real Thing, " she also appeared on Broadway with Alan Cumming in "Design For Living." Miss Ehle's expressive voice adds dramatic resonance to an already commanding narrative. Set in 1659, "Witch Child" is the story of young Mary Newbury, the granddaughter of a witch. Mary witnesses the torture and death of her adored grandmother and fears for her future until she is offered sanctuary across the ocean in America. However, upon arrival on these shores Mary discovers that she is among not only strangers, but people who fear and hate. She must disguise herself as a devout Puritan or imperil her life. Celia Rees, who is described as an "aficionado of the supernatural" has recreated a time when being different was not tolerated and brought it to vivid life through the fictional diary of Mary Newbury.
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Summary: A wonderfully told story!
Review: When I first saw this book in the store, I wasn't sure that I would like it. Reading the cover made me by and starting the first chapter meant that nothing got done that night! I was amazed at the way Celia Rees told the story of Mary, a young English girl, who must flee England during the beginning of the witch hunts. She is taken from the square where her grandmother has just been executed for witchcraft and sent to America where it is hoped that she will not be held for trail. Things begin to happen and soon Mary learns that she has not escaped anything. Acusations soon begin to fly but the question is... Will Mary survive? Read Witch Child and find out. Don't forget that if you like Witch Child, you should read it's sequal, Sorceress... as the adventures continue with the a new generation..
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Summary: Witch Child
Review: Mary is convicted of being a witch. After Mary's Grandmother is hung for being a witch she is sent to the Americas by a stranger with similar eyes. This is an adventure for Mary. She talks to sailors, meets the Native Americans, makes new friends & enemies!
This is a great book to read & I recommend it to everyone!
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Summary: Fiction & Folklore
Review: Witch Child is a 'junior' read, but very entertaining. This has been on my list for years, and was not a dissappointment. Written as a diary, 14 yr old Mary leaves her home after her grandmother is hung for being a witch, and travels to the New World in the 1600s to start life anew with a woman she has never met.
Their travel is long upon a boat, and her she starts to discover her true talents as a witch; and the struggle to keep her identity a secret.
In the New World her struggle grows to hide her secrets and her relationship that develops with the Native Americans. And ultimately, she is blamed for situations she did not committ.
This book is an easy read, in journal form, and is very entertaining and heart wrenching.
I reccommend to anyone who enjoy's reading witchcraft-lore & fiction combined.
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