Synopses & Reviews
"First they 'walked ' her, marching her up and down, up and down between them for a day and a night until she could no longer hobble, her feet all bloody and swollen. She would not confess. So they set about to prove she was a witch. . . ."
Enter the world of young Mary Newbury, a world where simply being different can cost a person her life. Hidden until now in the pages of her diary, Mary's startling story begins in 1659, the year her beloved grandmother is hanged in the public square as a witch. Mary narrowly escapes a similar fate, only to face intolerance and new danger among the Puritans in the New World. How long can she hide her true identity? Will she ever find a place where her healing powers will not be feared?
Though Mary's story takes place 350 years ago, she is a credible and engaging feminist character for modern times. WITCH CHILD will compel readers to ask themselves: how much have things really changed?
Review
Loving Ben -- Delacorte Press 1988 (no paperback edition in the US)Published as Red Sky in the Morning in UK
Reviews include: starred review in School Library Journal Sept 1989
A best book of the year, American Library Association
Kirkus pointed review October 1989
Times Educational Supplement (London) "It is quite simply a wonderfully moving story about the power of love"
Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal
Kiss the Dust -- Dutton Children's Books 1992
Paperback Puffin 1994
Reviews include:
Starred review Publishers Weekly
NCSS-CBC Notable 1992 Children's Trade Book in the field of Social Studies
1993 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
Nominated Utah Young Adults Book Award 1995
Winner of the Sheffield Book Award
Winner of the Royal Dutch Geographical Society Glass Globe Award
Secret Friends -- Penguin Putnam USA 1998
Winner of The Children's Book Award (UK)
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal
Jake's Tower -- Barrons Juveniles 2002
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Book Award
The Garbage King -- Barrons Juveniles 2003
Winner of the Scottish Arts Council Children's Book of the Year award and the Stockport Book award.
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Blue Peter Award, the Salford Children's Book Award, the Calderdale Children's Book Award, the Lincolnshire Young People's Book Award, the Stockton Children's Book of the Year, the West Sussex Children's Book Award, the Portsmouth Book Award and the Sheffield Children's Book Award.
A Little Piece of Ground -- Haymarket Books 2006
Winner of the Hampshire Book Award
Shortlisted for the Southern Schools Book Award
Oranges in No Man's Land -- Haymarket Books, 2008
Winner of the KS2 Hull Children's Book Award.
Shortlisted for the Sheffield Children's Book Award, the North East Book Award, the Rotherham Children's Book Award, the West Sussex Children's Book Award and the Canadian Surrey Schools Book Award.
Review
"This is a beautifully crafted novel to be savored for its symbolic language, historical atmosphere, and vivid characters."—School Library Journal, starred review "Laird celebrates courage, survival, and the spark of independence that carries Maggie through."—Publishers Weekly "Fine and effortless prose, creating instantly gripping characters and setting ."—Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
In seventeenth-century Scotland, saying the wrong thing can lead to banishment—or worse. Accused of being a witch, sixteen-year-old Maggie Blair is sentenced to be hanged. She escapes, but instead of finding shelter with her principled, patriotic uncle, she brings disaster to his door.
Betrayed by one of her own accusers, Maggie must try to save her uncle and his family from the kings men, even if she has to risk her own life in the process. Originally published in the UK, this book has a powerful blend of heart-stopping action and thought-provoking themes.
Synopsis
Sixteen-year-old Maggie, accused of being a witch in treacherous seventeenth-century Scotland, escapes imprisonment but brings disaster to her uncle's door. After she is betrayed, she must try to save her family from the King's men at all costs.
About the Author
Celia Rees is the author of many novels for teens. WITCH CHILD is her first with Candlewick Press. After reading about seventeenth-century witch persecutions and Native American shamanism, she says, "It occurred to me that the beliefs and skills that would have condemned a woman to death in one society would have been revered in another. That got me thinking, what if there was a girl who could move between these two worlds?... Mary came into my head and WITCH CHILD began."