Green Witch [Hardcover]

Alice Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2010

From bestselling author Alice Hoffman, a resonant tale of overcoming grief and tragedy, as only she could tell it.

In this powerful, lovely sequel to GREEN ANGEL, Green must learn the stories of a number of "witches" and free her true soul mate from a prison as she grapples with life, love, and loss in a post-disaster world.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 9–11—Green, 17, who first appeared in Hoffman's Green Angel(Scholastic, 2003), continues in the wake of her family's and town's decimation by a group known as the Horde, who despise modern invention, the future, and any type of growth. Green, called so due to her ability to make things grow, has shown inner growth from the time of being isolated and brutalized, both by the events brought on by the Horde and at her own hand, to the present when she is now reconnecting with other survivors in the town. "Loss does different things to different people…I have planted a garden, reached out to my neighbors, begun to write down my story." And so she does, going on a soul-searching quest for answers about the nature of life, love, and the future. Four of the neighbors she speaks to are said to be witches, but they are the sages of the story who impart wisdom and gifts unto Green that serve her well on her quest. With the help she gains from their counsel, she sets off in an attempt to free prisoners from the Horde's prison, and also to test the waters of her own strength and capacity for love. Hoffman's spare language leads to a story sounding as if it were being told by a sage. It is a language and voice promising more stories from Green, more growth to be seen within herself and within the hearts and spirits of the people. If this makes for a Green Witch, readers will find her a welcome witch indeed.—Tracy Weiskind, Chicago Public Library
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Hoffman continues the postapocalyptic fable she began in Green Angel (2003), about a teen who loses her family when a nearby city is destroyed. A year after the tragedy, Green continues to heal by tending her wildly flourishing garden and collecting the stories of survivors, but she longs for her beloved, Diamond, who has gone missing. After listening to so many voices, Green feels, “There is only one story I want to get to the end of now. Will he come back to me? Will I want him if he does?” Determined to find Diamond, Green consults a series of witchlike women, who offer lines of wisdom (“Love is an act of will,” “What you dream, you can grow”) that sometimes read like purposeful aphorisms. But Hoffman writes in lyrical, stripped-down poetry that distills both magic and elemental experience into essential, unforgettable words: “He was nothing to me, and then he was everything.” Teens will want to talk about everything here: the potent emotion and loss; the 9/11 parallels; and the violent, eye-for-an-eye ending. Grades 7-12. --Gillian Engberg

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (March 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545141958
• ISBN-13: 978-0545141956
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She currently lives in Boston and New York.

Hoffman's first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. She credits her mentor, professor and writer Albert J. Guerard, and his wife, the writer Maclin Bocock Guerard, for helping her to publish her first short story in the magazine Fiction. Editor Ted Solotaroff then contacted her to ask if she had a novel, at which point she quickly began to write what was to become Property Of, a section of which was published in Mr. Solotaroff's magazine, American Review.

Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published a total of eighteen novels, two books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte's masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Her advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman (Women's Cancer) Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. Blackbird House is a book of stories centering around an old farm on Cape Cod. Hoffman's recent books include Aquamarine and Indigo, novels for pre-teens, and The New York Times bestsellers The River King, Blue Diary, The Probable Future, and The Ice Queen. Green Angel, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale about loss and love, was published by Scholastic and The Foretelling, a book about an Amazon girl in the Bronze Age, was published by Little Brown. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year. In January 2007, Skylight Confessions, a novel about one family's secret history, was released on the 30th anniversary of the publication of Her first novel. Her most recent novel is The Story Sisters (2009), published by Shaye Areheart Books.

Hoffman's work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay "Independence Day" a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, Redbook, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, Self, and other magazines. Her teen novel Aquamarine was recently made into a film starring Emma Roberts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ahhhhahhh...so there is more to Green than meets the eye..., July 1, 2010

By 

S. Fishburn (Fort Collins, Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Green Witch (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

As an Alice Hoffman fan of the first order, I picked Green Witch prepared to add it to my lengthy list of her books which I adore and would recommend hands down. As other reviewers have pointed out, it's pure prose poetry.
What I didn't realize is that it's a sequel. I recommend reading Green Angel first (I will have to do that retroactively.) As a stand alone there is simply too much left unexplained. The five sections - Stone Witch, Sky Witch, Rose Witch, River Witch, and Green Witch, which comprise the slim Green Witch volume feel almost parenthetical to a far greater tale - as, indeed, they are. And though the ending is hopeful, as is true with every Alice Hoffman story, Green Witch has such a tragic overall cast that instead of feeling - oh, "things will be all right despite everything for these characters", I felt almost the opposite - despite their finding one another, coming together, being a "family" - nothing can ever be all right again, and they may survive and love, but they won't really live...
Here's what I think Scholastic should do. (My humble opinion.) Have Ms. Hoffman complete a third book, one that does bring the story full-circle, and has a more upbeat, maybe even a little funny at moments, overall feeling. Call it Green Garden, or Green Spirit... Then package the three as a trilogy.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book Review: LibraryLoungeLizard.com, March 23, 2010

By 

Darcy Wishard "libraryloungelizard.com" (Kelso, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Green Witch (Hardcover)

I loved Green Angel and I was so happy to see the sequel because Green definitely had more to tell...

In the first book Green loses her family in a horrible disaster that occurs when they visit a local city that is set ablaze by terrorist type people called "The Horde". The Horde despise any type of growth and advancement in civilization. In Green Witch we find out more about them and their mission:

"Repent...Don't even try to fight because heaven is on our side."

A chilling similarity to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that parallels the terrorists opinions that we deserved their hate and wrath.

What I love about these two books is that they are about hope and love and that with the help of those around us we can eventually rise above the despair of losing people we love.

Green mourns the life before the fires and can't see that she will ever get over her loss. She tattoos her body with roses and thorns and closes herself off to the rest of world. It is only when she decides to start helping others in need, animals and people alike, that she truly starts to break through her own grief and regret.

In Green Witch Green sets out to find two people disappear from her life...Heather a school mate whose brother asks for Greens help and Diamond, the boy who brought love back into Green's life. There are secrets in both disappearances and Green knows that in order to complete her journey she must find the truth.

Magical, magical writing that you will find yourself re-reading and perhaps writing down certain meaningful and lovely passages that you want to remember...

"Dreams are like air. They never leave you. It takes less than nothing to begin."

Both books are just barely over a hundred pages...they are more about quality than quantity and Greens story will leave a lasting impression. I have never had a student that I recommended the books to return them unread.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Green Grows Up, July 1, 2010

By 

Diane B. Wilkes "Diane Wilkes, Voracious Reader" (Oreland, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Green Witch (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

In GREEN ANGEL, Green loses her family and herself to an all-encompassing disaster in the city from fundamentalist zealots (kinda like 9/11, but with destruction amplified many times over). After a long and desperate time, she begins to heal with the help of an old neighbor and Diamond, a young man she loves. With her gift for making things grow, she is again Green, not Ash, the name she gave herself when she was most desperate.

In GREEN WITCH, Green now longs only for the other half of her heart: Diamond. In order to find her other half, she seeks out the counsel of four witches: Stone Witch, Sky Witch, Rose Witch, and River Witch. Each one shows her by word and deed what she must do to find Diamond. They help her, but she must also help herself...and others besides Diamond.

Hoffman's poetic prose is greener than Green...verdant, lush, all-encompassing and redolent with the scent and substance of loamy magic. Her imagery combines the tangible with the magical, such as the different kinds of paper Green creates for her stories, depending on the person involved. The Rose Witch's paper is made with rose water "so that the pages are tinged with flecks of crimson." She adds rose petals to it as well. Don't you want this paper? I do.

I almost want to live in Green's world, even though the Horde (the fundamental zealots who want to repress women and learning and individual thought and technology) is an imminent threat. Like Green, Hoffman forges a place of peace and exquisite beauty from the ashes and it's a lovely haven, one I wish to enter again and again.