Sorceress [Hardcover]

Celia Rees (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 2002

The suspense is over! Readers of the spellbinding story of Mary Newbury can finally find out what happens to her next - thanks to a young, modern-day descendant who has an uncanny connection to the past.

Agnes closed her eyes in the heat and steam of the sweat lodge. She woke to air that was dry and cold around her. She was no longer Agnes, or even Karonhisake, Searching Sky. She was no longer American or Haudenosaunee. She was English, and her name was Mary, and she woke to find that she was dying, freezing to death.

It came to Agnes unbidden - a vision of Mary Newbury, alone in the snow, dying of the cold. A vision of a young woman who had lived in the 1600s,
an unusual young woman who had been driven from her Puritan settlement, accused of being a witch. It was an image of a woman whose life was about to change radically, as she embarked on an existence that defied all accepted norms - embracing passionate independence, love, and loyalty to a proud, endangered community that accepted her as one of their own.

Mary’s and Agnes’s lives have been separated by almost 400 years, but they are inextricably linked by more than blood. Like Mary, Agnes has special powers - powers that Mary now seeks to ensure that the rest of her story is told.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Native American teen experiences a life-altering encounter after reading about Mary Newbury the 17th-century protagonist of Witch Child who may be connected with one of her own relatives, in Sorceress by Celia Rees. Ages 14-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10-This sequel to Rees's Witch Child (Candlewick, 2001) is a much more complex story, taking readers into a mystical plot that crosses time and place. Agnes, a Native American, is starting college in Boston. She reads part of a diary about 17th-century Mary Newbury and realizes that she has a connection with her from a story passed down in her family about a white woman who had settled with the Mohawks. Contacting the researcher who found Mary's diary leads to experiences that Agnes could not have imagined. While visiting the reservation, her aunt leads her into a vision quest where she "becomes" Mary. She sees a peaceful period, followed by years of death, forced migration, and constant conflict with settlers. Her final role as a respected healer is passed down through Agnes's ancestors, creating the link between the two women. The book ends with a series of historical notes written by Alison, the researcher. Rees manages to carry all of this off through her strong writing style and well-developed characters, using the artifacts that have been preserved in Agnes's family to add to the credibility of the story. The book not only gives readers a view of life 400 years ago and a look at one Native American culture, but also helps them understand what draws someone to historical research by showing that history is the story of people's lives and the events that shape them. While it can stand alone, the novel will be enjoyed more by those who have read Witch Child.
Jane G. Connor, South Carolina State Library, Columbia
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick Press; 1st Candlewick Press ed edition (August 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763618470
• ISBN-13: 978-0763618476
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,189,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Celia Rees was born in Solihull, West Midlands, UK. She studied History and Politics at Warwick University and then went on to teach English in city comprehensive schools for seventeen years. She now divides her time between writing, talking to readers in schools and libraries, and teaching creative writing.

She has written many books for older children and teenagers, and has become a leading writer for Young Adults with an international reputation. Her books have been translated into 28 languages and she has been short listed for the Guardian, Whitbread and W.H. Smith Children's Book Awards, as well as numerous regional awards in the UK and America. Witch Child won the prestigious Prix Sorcières in France in 2003, and the Di Cento Prize in Italy, 2001. Her latest book, The Fool's Girl, publishes in the U.S. in July, 2010

Celia lives in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, with her husband, Terry. Her daughter, Catrin, now lives and works in London.

To learn more about Celia and her books, visit her website at: www.celiarees.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tht Thrilling sequel to Witch Child, September 7, 2002

By 

Nancy E. "Nancy" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sorceress (Hardcover)

Agnes, a Canadian Indian, is spending her time in college in Boston when she runs across a published diary of a girl that was an accused Salem witch. The Book is called Witch Child. Agnes can't get over the similarities from the book to one of her ancestors, a white woman that lived with the Indians. Combine that with the fact that she is beginning to have mysterious visions from the past, and Agnes realizes that something big is about to happen. She contacts the woman named Alison who is mentioned in the back of the book Witch child, a woman who is looking for information about Mary. Alison is eager to find info on Mary and will help Agnes in any way that she can. This sends Agnes away from school back home, where she is sent on a vision quest to find out what happened to Mary.

Although the books Witch Child, and Sorceress are fictional novels, Celia Rees makes you almost believe that every thing is real. It's thrilling to find out what happened to Mary for pretty much the rest of her life, and Agnes is a very strong and amiable character. Another great thing about this book is the appendixes in the back. It's filled with diary entries and letters written by the characters in Witch Child whom we don't unfortunately don't see anything of them in the book. Another thing that was great to see is the representations of Native Americans in not a negative light, but in a realistic one. If your a fan of great historical fiction, especially one that realistically shows Native Americans, I highly recommend this to you.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A vision quest into the past..., December 10, 2002

By 

hiphopgirl_1000 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sorceress (Hardcover)

Agnes Herne is a Mohawk Indian living in Boston attending college when she begins to start getting visions from this girl named Mary. All she knows is that the visions are somehow connected to the girl she read about in the book "Witch Child"(Sorceress's prequel)named Mary Newbury. Agnes soon begin to suspect Mary is the woman in the legend of the white woman who joined the people and was a very skilled healer. Agnes decides to return to the Mohawk Indian reservation where she could get advice from her aunt, also a healer. Soon she goes on a powerful vision quest that will conclude Mary's story, the story of a girl who beat all odds and used her special powers to become a healer.

This was a fitting ending to Witch Child. Mary's ending wasn't exactly how I expected it to be but it was nice to find out about all the other people at Beluh and how the quilt where the original diary was found got to the museum. A definite must read for Witch Child fans!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent sequel..., October 5, 2004

By 

Jess "a writer and reader" (NY, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sorceress (Witch Child) (Paperback)

The end of "Witch Child" left me dying for more. I was too pleased to discover "Sorceress," though bewildered by the cover portait. It came to understand, as I read, that the portrait depicts a girl named Agnes, a Native American college student, who finishes reading "Witch Child" and has a vision, sent from, it seems, Mary herself.
After contacting Allison Ellman, the ambitious young woman who has taken it upon herself to discover Mary's history and that of those she tells of in her diary, Agnes sets off to the Mohawk Reservation, seeking her aunt, a medicine woman who she thinks will try to help her solve the mystery of these visions, and of Mary.
It is at this point in the novel, with her aunt at her side, and Allison fervently researching in Canada, that Agnes begins her spiritual journey to uncover Mary's future and her own past, linking Mary, the Pennacook, the Mowhawks and even the French Canadian as both Agnes and Mary's stories evolve simultaneously.

I thought this book was just as superb as the first. I was startled at first by the rapid change in the cast of characters--where did Agnes and Allison come from? I thought. However, when Agnes' visions begin, I understood, and settled in to enjoy the novel.
It definitely did not disappoint me. I was thrilled at the turns Mary's life took, and engrossed in all the details about Native Americans. One of the most fun parts of the book were the encounters with characters like Rebekah Rivers, who had been prominent in the first novel, and faded into Mary's past in the second.
Overall, "Sorceress" was written as beautifully as "Witch Child", and the story was as fascinating, if not more so, being that there were two stories unfolding at once. I loved the end, with all the "notes" on the histories of the Riverses, Jack Gill and other notable characters, and was extremely satisfied with the culmination of Mary's story.
I most definitely reccomend this book to anyone, provided you've read "Witch Child" first, of course.