The day before yesterday, I realized that my Nook (a/k/a best friend since Christmas) needed charging, and I had time to read. So, I picked up another book which really should have made the summer reading list, but I forgot about it. One of several. My good friend and colleague, Rachel B. gave me a copy of Witch Child by Celia Rees. I believe she has put this book on her 10th grade summer reading list. It is always a challenge for English teachers to find summer reading books that are relevant to our curriculum, readable for our students and really good (that looks like the three R's of summer reading:) Parents and students alike find summer reading a challenge, but it is really necessary. Short story - reading is a skill that needs to be practiced and there is no way we can teach all the literature/concepts within one school year which students really need. Hence, summer reading.
Anyway, I picked up Witch Child, and it was quite good. The basic premise is that a young girl named Mary escapes England with the Puritans and winds up in a settlement close to Salem. Her grandmother was hanged in England as a witch, and Mary has a few odd quirks which make the suspicious Puritan folks turn a second glance. The writing is quite accessible for teenagers, but Rees did not lose the diction of Puritan writers. Some "period pieces" written for modern readers have diction that sounds like a contemporary sit-com. It never works. Rees does a great job with authentic diction. The thing she does even better than word choice is the inclusion of lots of historical data carefully woven into the plot. This will give students entering 10th grade American Lit the background they need to understand some of the more difficult pieces they will encounter in the fall. Also, it is really interesting. I loved the ending, which was different and quite unexpected.
So, the Nook is charged again, and I have managed to reach Casterbridge with Susan and her now grown daughter, Elizabeth-Jane. More on them later.
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