Witness

Rating:
Summary: Witness: A Great Book
Review: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a small town where neighbors turn on each other, a town where it is not safe, not safe to be different?
In Witness the author, Karen Hesse captures the tale of a small town that nearly fell apart because of an event so strong it divided its townspeople. This horrible division caused many mixed feelings and actions to take place in the small town of Vermont, 1924.

The town was peaceful and everything worked out well, even for the two youngest children in town: Esther Hirsh, and Leonora Sutter. Everything worked out fine, until the Ku Klux Klan came to town. Every person in the town had their own feelings about these visitors, and they wanted to be heard. Karen Hesse does a great job in comparing the views of the unforgettable eleven characters.

To create the many points of views from various characters Karen uses journal-like entries written in poetic forms to express and reveal each character in depth. I personally found the technique used by Karen very interesting. It helped me as a reader to learn about each character and their strengths and weaknesses. To enhance the story, famous events such as the Leopold and Loeb case are added into the book, adding strong views on the situation by each character. They later realize what is happening to their small town, and face (giving the characters) the decisions of what to do with their lives before the K.K.K harms everyone.

Witness was a book I enjoyed to reading. It was "readalicous". It included many characters, a heart-warming ending, and a mystery disappearance of a character. On a scale of one to ten I would defiantly rate this book a ten right away. I couldn't put the book away for one second, fearing I would miss something about the book.

I would encourage everyone to read this story. The book contains many events and characters anyone can relate to. The book is very well written with many great passages. Witness is a great story where characters finally realize what they have been doing wrong while being under the Ku Klux Klan's clutches. The characters solve their individual problems, some more drastic than others. Witness is a wonderful book, which everyone should read, to learn about a small town and its ways of solving a major dilemma.

Rating:
Summary: Star Witness
Review: The characters of Hesse's novel inhabit a small 1924 Vermont village that seems idyllic, at least on the surface. The highlights of the villager's lives include a community dance recital, a broom sale at the general store and the occasional run-in between the local rum-runner and the sheriff. But beneath the surface, tensions are stirring; the Ku Klux Klan is on the rise and the winds of intolerance reach even to rural Vermont. Will Leonora Sutter and her father, the only African-Americans in town, be able to survive in the face of hatred? Will six-year-old Esther Hirsh be destroyed by the prejudice against her Jewish heritage, a prejudice she is too young to comprehend? Will preacher Johnny Reeves serve his God or the Klan--or are they the same? And will the people of this town stand together or be torn apart by the powerful emotions swirling about them? Using a journal-like style, Hesse provides each of her characters with a distinct and genuine voice with which to tell his or her story--to "witness". Soon, we come to feel that we know each of them-- we see into their hearts and minds, and care deeply about what becomes of them. Hesse does a remarkable job of bringing this episode of history to life and helps us to understand how individual decisions do shape history.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Moving.
Review: This book is so kewl. It's set up as poems from 9 different people's points of view. It's all about a small town in the 1930's that is virtually being taken over my the ku klux klan and changing the way that people think. All of the sudden it seems like you must be a part of the ku klux klan to get anywhere in the city. People are getting married in white robes and putting "ku klux klan only" in the windows of their stores. Each person has a very different point of view though they are all equaly interesting. I would recomend this book to anyone that is interested in history.... and even if you aren't... give it a try!