Customer Reviews

A Break with Charity: A Story about the Salem Witch Trials

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am a 13 year old who read this book because I was very interested in the Salem Witch Trials. I am a very picky reader and I consider it one of the best books I have ever read. It had a lot of educational information about the trials but at the same time it was not at all boring. At no point in this book did I feel that it was dragging on. This book I could not put down and spent an entire day reading it. I encourage this book to all young adults. Ann Rinaldi is an excellent author and has a real talent for writing!

I consider "A Break with Charity" to be Ann Rinaldi at her best. She provides an insider's depiction of the Witch Trials using the perspective of a fourteen year old living in Salem, MA. The facts and characters are well-researched. Although the main character, Susanna English, is fictitious, she is a believable and sympathetic character. I heard alot about the witch trials as I grew up outside of Boston and was surprised to learn so much from Rinaldi's attentive detail. This book is intended for young adults and I, as a not so young adult, thoroughly enjoyed every word....it is a page turner that evokes many emotions.

In my opinion this book makes you feel as if you are really there while all these trials are going on. Ann Rinaldi made me actually enjoy reading about history. Now I realise how difficult it was to live back then, how anything you do could make people suspect you as a witch. When reading this book I felt how most people did about the way people were dying and been noticed as a witch. I feel that the actions of the girls were just to protect them selves. Another book I suggest reading is A Wolf By Ears because you get the same feeling of devestation.

Ann Rinaldi puts you dead center of one of the greatest battles between the Good and Evil of human nature. Watch through the eyes of Susanna English, a teenage girl lving in Salem during the beginnings of the Witch hunt. She longs to be part of the group of girls that visit that parsonage, being told stories, and having their palms read. But, suddenly the girls start to become afflicted by some "greater power". Susanna knows full well that they are faking their torments for the sole purpose of receiving attention, but when she confronts the head of the circle, she is threatened. She is told that if she tells the village of the girl's deceit then they will tell the village leaders that her parents are witches. Susanna must watch, in horror, the unfolding the the Salem Witch Trials, and see as innocents are accused of Witch craft, and condemed. Can she keep her family safe? Or will she herself be called apon?

I found that the book was very well written, and filled with twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The worry of Susanna and other quickly-loved characters being called witches keeps the intense tone of the story. I fully recommend this book to anyone ages 12 and up. The best part about this book is that you are learning about history along with being thrilled by the turn of events.

Ann Rinaldi has a bad habit of making Christians the villians. Supprisingly enough, her book is well ballanced,fabulously written, extreemly realistic, and over-all superb!! Although an avid Rinaldi fan, I was somewhat wary of this book because of the slant on most books concerning the Salem Witch trials. They make the Puritans out to be blood thirsty pompous fools instead of being, (for the most part,) good people trying to discern what was the truth and what was not. Ann Rinaldi avoided this slant remarkably!! Thank you Ms.Rinadi for an historically accurate book!! You have ANOTHER teenage fan!!

Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. This was a terrible time for the families of those who were executed at the Salem Witch trials. If only one of them, one who had a family member in peril, even if done in private, had the power to prevent further tragedies...

And that is what Susanna English does, or at least according to Ann Rinaldi's fascinating retelling of this historical occurrence. Her brother William is lost at sea, and she wants news about his return from any source. And that is what brings her to Tituba, a slave at Mr. Parris's parsonage. It has been rumored that Tituba deals with the black arts and is a fortune teller, and even though visiting with such person is a sin, Susanna is so desperate to hear about her brother that she throws propriety aside and pays her a visit. Little had she known the chains of events that would occur afterwards. She witnesses the members of the circle, including Ann Putnam, the youngest and most mean-spirited of them all, attending the parsonage while the reverend is gone. She knows all of the things that would make the girls' stories and accusations seem inconsistent, and yet she keeps quiet, for Ann Putnam has threatened to accuse her family of witchcraft if she says a word. But when her mother and father are taken anyway, it is time to take action...

Rinaldi's version of the events is well written, well researched and well crafted -- except for the part about Susanna staying behind when her family flees to New York and she stays with Joseph Putnam. I find it hard to believe that her parents would simply leave her behind, even if it is with people they trust. I know this plot turn is necessary for the story, but still. Other than that, I very much enjoyed this insightful and wonderful historical novel. The Salem Witch trials have always fascinated me, and I have always wanted to read a fictional account on life as a Puritan. Were those people happy with the rules placed upon them? Rinaldi does a wonderful job giving her take on the subject. Historical novels, good and accurate ones, set in the middle to late seventeenth century America are few and far in between. I am so glad I found one by an author who knows her American history quite well.

Superstition. Boredom. Neighbor and family feuds. A circle of restless girls, trying to break free. Accusations. Hangings. The fine line between life and death, superstition and reality is tested in A Break with Charity by: Ann Rinaldi.
The year is 1692. The Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts is beginning to
unravel. Susannah English, now a grown woman in 1706, draws you into her teenager memories, describing her role in the Salem Witch Trials.
Having grown up in the house of a wealthy merchant (her father) a loving mother, sister (Mary English), and world-traveling brother (William English), Susannah is used to some freedoms. In her household she can think and read and have conversations about whatever opinions she has; without fear of what the town leaders will think. Her family doesn't even agree with all the Puritan ways. So when people start being accused of witchcraft left and right, she has reason to be afraid, especially since she knows the truth about the so - called possessed girls and their circle. If you do anything to cross the paths of Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Booth, Susannah Sheldon, Betty Parris, or Abigail Williams, your family may just be touched by the madness. With the Reverends and Magistrates hanging on every word of the 'afflicted' girls, it seems their is no end to the madness, and people all around Salem must step carefully. Secrets, trials, and waiting for the return of her lost-at-sea brother keeps you turning pages in this
perfect blend of fact and fiction. I would give this book five out of five stars. Anyone interested in the Salem Witch Trials or any girl looking for a great book would thoroughly enjoy reading A Break with Charity by: Ann Rinaldi.

Susanna English, a fourteen year old girl who lives in the small puritan community of Salem, is torn betweeen two worlds as her family gets accused of witchcraft and is sent to prison.Susanna desperately wants to join the circle of the girls who meet at the parsonage every week, but what she doesn't know is that they're planning to make things interesting and sudddenly act "afflicted" by witches whom they accuse at random; and the magistrate's believe them. Susanna stays in Salem with the Putnams, as her family is in Boston, and soon falls in love with Jonathon Hathorne. Finally Susanna is faced with having to make the hardest desicision of her life: tell the people of the evil girls' plans and risk getting accused of a witch, or keep quiet and watch innocent people lose their lives for no good reason.

A Break with Charity is an amazing and enlightening book. It brings you into the time of the Salem Witch Trials and makes you feel as if you were there. The perspectives given in the book are brilliant as you watch entertainment in a highly restrictive world go from seemingly innocent to powerful and deadly.

A Break with Charity chronicles the life of Susanna English, who once wanted to be part of the close circle of friends that became the `witch criers.' She watches the happenings with growing dread, her own family's safety at risk.

Even though the story of the Salem Witch Trials is disturbing at the least, Ann Rinaldi displays these times both elegantly and with proper demeanor.

In Salem town almost everything is a sin. This book is about a girl named Susanna who lives in Salem town, where these afflicted girls are killing everybody by saying they were witches. Susanna knows they are not afflicted. I recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction.

In this book you really learn about the past. Like how here was an old woman named Tituba who told fortunes. For Puritans fortune telling and kissing in public was a sin. Most of the people in Salem town also believed in witches.

This book was quite adventurous in the end of the story. The Adventure started when Susanna' family fled to Boston during the night so they wouldn't be put in jail by the afflicted girls. Then Susanna started living with their neighbors and disobeyed him when she and her boyfriend went and saw a captain of some ship. He said that one of the families friend had to be a witch. Susanna was then convinced not to believe and helped her escape form jail that night.

It also had a very happy ending. Susanna finally told someone that the girls were faking about being afflicted. Susanna's family gets their house back after getting it taken away because they were called witches. The very last pages of the book her brother comes home from a pirate's jail at sea.

If you like historical fiction you will love this book. It is a joy how you can read a normal book and learn at the same time. It is also very interesting and you will never want to put it down.
Marissa B