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A review by courtneydoss
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
4.0
Le sigh Nathaniel Eaton. My first love. The literary hottie that sent my eight year old heart into palpitations and effected my taste in men pretty much forever.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond was one of the first books that I ever read, and the book that I always professed to be my favorite in my childhood. I was a big history buff, and a story centered around the Puritan days of early America was right up my alley. Add in a dose of teenage romance, a wonderfully rebellious heroine, and accusations of witchcraft, and I was hooked.
Kit Tyler, the main character of the novel, is a young girl from Barbados who relocates to the British colony of Connecticut after the death of her grandfather. Raised in luxury, Kit is surprised to find that life in Connecticut is far simpler than it was in Barbados, but the social requirements are infinitely more complex. Unused to the Puritanical rule of the town, Kit finds herself on the bad side of most people's moral opinions quite quickly, and is accused of witchcraft after she begins to hang out with a local Quaker woman named Hannah Tupper.
Looking at this book from an adult perspective, I can see why this was such a favorite of mine. The story of a weird girl who is transplanted into a foreign land and doesn't know the right things to do to make people like her rang pretty close to home for me, as an army brat with a hard time making friends. The love stories between Nathaniel and Kit, and two other lesser characters that I won't name for fear of spoiling it, were about being loved and accepted for who you are, even if others never saw your worth.
I rated this book 4-stars because of the nostalgia factor. Really, the writing would put it solidly at a 3-stars rating because it was a bit dry and boring, if I'm being honest. However, the oomph that came from a sweet love story combined with the nostalgia made me rate it a little bit higher. I couldn't bring myself to do the whole 5-stars, though, because the dry prose did make reading this book, even as short as it was, drag on.
I read this book as part of my 2020 goal to reread books from my childhood that I enjoyed now that I'm an adult, just to see if they hold up.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond was one of the first books that I ever read, and the book that I always professed to be my favorite in my childhood. I was a big history buff, and a story centered around the Puritan days of early America was right up my alley. Add in a dose of teenage romance, a wonderfully rebellious heroine, and accusations of witchcraft, and I was hooked.
Kit Tyler, the main character of the novel, is a young girl from Barbados who relocates to the British colony of Connecticut after the death of her grandfather. Raised in luxury, Kit is surprised to find that life in Connecticut is far simpler than it was in Barbados, but the social requirements are infinitely more complex. Unused to the Puritanical rule of the town, Kit finds herself on the bad side of most people's moral opinions quite quickly, and is accused of witchcraft after she begins to hang out with a local Quaker woman named Hannah Tupper.
Looking at this book from an adult perspective, I can see why this was such a favorite of mine. The story of a weird girl who is transplanted into a foreign land and doesn't know the right things to do to make people like her rang pretty close to home for me, as an army brat with a hard time making friends. The love stories between Nathaniel and Kit, and two other lesser characters that I won't name for fear of spoiling it, were about being loved and accepted for who you are, even if others never saw your worth.
I rated this book 4-stars because of the nostalgia factor. Really, the writing would put it solidly at a 3-stars rating because it was a bit dry and boring, if I'm being honest. However, the oomph that came from a sweet love story combined with the nostalgia made me rate it a little bit higher. I couldn't bring myself to do the whole 5-stars, though, because the dry prose did make reading this book, even as short as it was, drag on.
I read this book as part of my 2020 goal to reread books from my childhood that I enjoyed now that I'm an adult, just to see if they hold up.