Title: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Author: Elizabeth George Speare

Publisher: Laurel Leaf

Publication date: May 15, 1978

Source: Barnes & Noble

About: Orphaned Kit Tyler knows, as she gazes for the first time at the cold, bleak shores of Connecticut Colony, that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. In her relatives’ stern Puritan community, she feels like a tropical bird that has flown to the wrong part of the world, a bird that is now caged and lonely. The only place where Kit feels completely free is in the meadows, where she enjoys the company of the old Quaker woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond, and on occasion, her young sailor friend Nat. But when Kit’s friendship with the “witch” is discovered, Kit is faced with suspicion, fear, and anger. She herself is accused of witchcraft!

I am so glad I finally got to read this. Elizabeth George’s story was a wonderful peek into what life was like in New England in the 1600s. I absolutely adored the main character, Kit, and all the characters began to grow on me more and more as the book progressed.

This book was school-required reading, but I’ve wanted to read it for several years. I remember my fourth grade teacher had it in her classroom, but I veered away from it because of “The Witch” in the title. But rather than a story of an actual witch, The Witch of Blackbird Pond is about a witch trial in the seventeenth-century and a spirited girl who doesn’t fit into her aunt and uncle’s Puritan lifestyle.

I liked the character development in the book a lot. It wasn’t too fast-paced or too slow for my taste. It was darn near perfect, actually. Characters are the most important aspect of a story for me, and each character in the book was well-developed, captivating, and fit together for a great historical fiction novel.

I DID love the romance. I wasn’t expecting it in a book like this, but it was needed for this particular story. It was part of the main plot, yet light. (But still perfectly adorable, I promise you!) Kit’s anxiety over a marriage expected of her in her new home kept the story moving. Yet then there was Nat… the son of the sea captain and the goofy, boyish New Englander Kit doesn’t even know she loves. (But the reader does, and that’s what important!) 😉 *swoon* Anyone who knows me knows I am a hopeless romantic, and any dash of romance in a book keeps me into the plot line.

It took me quite a while to get through this book – nine or ten days. I’m not sure why it took me so long to read it; it’s a decent length (250 pages) but certainly not as long as other books I’ve read. (I have been in a sort of book slump lately, so I’ll attribute it to that.) However… as much as I want to give this book five stars, it was very slow in the beginning. I honestly wasn’t hooked until the last four or five chapters; thus the four stars.

Definitely a book for anyone to read. SO glad I finally got around to it. I’m actually looking forward to the essay I have to write for school, and that’s a first! 🙂

have you read the witch of blackbird pond? does it sound like something you’d read? lemme know!