Customer Reviews

I Walk in Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembly, Witness to the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts Bay Colony 1691 (Dear America Series)

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Twelve-year-old Deliverance Trembley lives on a farm in a regular town called Salem Village in the state of Massachusettes. The year is 1691 and Deliverance is living alone with her sister Mem, a sicky seventeen-year-old. Their cruel uncle has left them to fend for themselves, even though he is suppose to be taking care of them since Deliverance's parents are dead and her brother is gone in the military. Deliverance worries constantly that the neighbors will be suspicious that her uncle is not home. However soon her worries are not that simple anymore. The landscape in Salem is changing and the events to follow will change the town forever. When some girls in Salem Village come down with a weird illness, some young girls beginning accusing other townspeople of witchcraft. Soon even Deliverance's friend Goody is accused. Deliverance beings to feel that something must be up and innocent people are being accused. Will this mass panic ever come to an end.

I was really looking forward to the Dear America book on the Salem Witch Trials. I have always been a big fan of the stories of that period. Everybody knows about the Salem Witch Trials. Granted, myths have popped up everywhere about it. If you enjoyed this diary, I recommend you reading Celia Ree's Witch Child, another book about witch hunting. The sequel to that book is also a nice read.

Deliverance Trembley, who is twelve years old, begins her diary in December 1691. She lives with her sickly seventeen-year-old sister, Mem, on a farm in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Their uncle, who is supposed to be caring for the girls now that they are orphans and their older brother is away with the militia, has gone to sea and ordered the girls to let no one know he has gone away. Deliverance worries the neighbors will find out the truth and hates to have to lie. But when girls in Salem Village begin to behave strangely, and are said to be bewitched, Deliverance has even bigger worries. Are there truly witches in Salem Village, doing the Devil's work? Or is the mass hysteria sweeping through the village leading to the accusations of innocent people?

I loved this new book in the Dear America series, and I highly recommend it to readers who are fans of the series, or who like historical fiction about the Salem Witch Trials. I'd been hoping for a while that there would be a book in the series about this topic, and I wasn't disappointed at all by this book. The author did a great job at bringing the events in Salem in 1692 to life.

I Walk in Dread is an excellent, skillfully written novel. It follows the story of Deliverance Trembley, a twelve-year-old Puritan girl living in Salem Village, Massachusetts, with her older sister Remembrance and their uncle. They live with their unlce because the rest of their family was killed or taken captive during an Indian raid in Maine, so they have moved to Massachusetts. One day their uncle leaves and tells Deliverance and Remembrance, nicknamed Liv and Mem, not to tell anyone he has left them unattended. But when the two girls are living alone without their uncle for many months, after he has seemingly abandoned them, strange events begin to happen. A small group of girls who were once tight friends soon become known as "the afflicted." The girls often succumb to paranormal symptoms, such as fits of seizures and flying about in crazy contortions and positions. The folk of Salem begin to whisper that it is the work of the Devil and his witches, and soon enough the girls name the witches attacking them.
After the examinations of the women accused takes place, Deliverance hates the women with a hot passion, but when the girls accuse a newfound dear frined of Deliverance's, she slowly starts to doubt the girls' truthfulness.
For many religious people, the subject of the Salem Witch Trials is touchy, mostly because it displays some of the faults of the Church. This book does not hesitate to give the straight facts of the incidents of Salem. The main character of this novel is extremely likable because she seems to be the sole person to have a connection with her brain in the entire village, for she is the only one that sees the glaring errors in the girls' accusations and stories. Deliverance is also very intelligent and observant, and my favorite quote from one of her diary entries is: "Common sense is not so common around here." This dearly speaks the truth of this entire event of colonial America, because I myself have always believed that the whole witch hunt was a just a bunch of bored girls who wanted to have a little fun. And then their child's play of... "jolly good fun" turned into a killing spree of innocent people.
Although many of Deliverance's entries are often repetitive, what with the girls just naming countless more witches, this novel is suspenseful and interesting nonetheless. I would definitely call it one of the better books in the Dear America series. So many things could have gone wrong with this book, and yet the author, Lisa Rowe Fraustino, held it together and did an excellent job.
This may just be the book that could get people hooked on the Dear America series!

Liv's life is very sad. Her dearest role model is accused of being a witch. I cried when I read parts of this book. I wish we had read this book in Middle School! I think the other students would have really liked it. I know I did! I liked it so much that I'm trying to write my own 'Dear America' book about the Salem Witch Trials. The working title is 'Witness to Insanity: The Diary Of Rebecca Goode'.

One of the last books of Dear America series and what a tragedy given how wonderful each of these books are. Here we have Delieverance Trembly living in Salem with her sister Mem who is sickly. Their parents are dead and their uncle has disappered Delieverance is trying not to let anyone discover they are alone but her worries are subsided by events unfolding in Salem. As a witness to the Witch Trials, Delieverance is surprised by what's going on and when one of her friends is accused of being a witch Delieverance grows suspicious of the trials. You can feel her worries, fear and horror at watching her town where she thought she knew everyone try and hang neighbors.

"I Walk in Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembley, Witness to the Salem Witch Trials" is a must have for readers who are interested in the Salem Witch Trials. I am one of those readers, and I was very excited about this book. The Trials are such an interesting time in our early American history, mainly because of its mysteries. This book does not solve any mysteries, but helps us understand what a bystander felt like - a bystander who did not believe the outcries of witches. Included in this story are sibling love (and hatred, at times), money worries, friendships, courtships, and farm life. You'll never want to put the book down, and it's a very satisfying read. Author Lisa Rowe Fraustino is a welcomed writer to the "Dear America" family. I recommend.

I Walk in Dread / 0-439-24973-2

This is a spectacular rendition of the Salem history. The author walks an incredibly fine line here, and manages to be perfectly respectful of religious belief whilst still maintaining a healthy concern that the witch-hunters may be motivated by causes other than the supernatural. Illness, maliciousness, boredom, and confusion are all presented here as possible motives for the hysteria. I'm pleased that the book does not focus only on the "accusing girls"; an important point is carefully made about the magistrates at the trials and their complete unwillingness to consider any possibility that the accused might be innocent. This is a crucial lynch-pin issue of the Salem trials, and I was pleased that it was noted so carefully here.

Tension in the book is heightened by the fact that the author's own sister is completely taken with the spectacle of the trials and the diarist fears that she may, eventually, be accused by her own sister - more out of sibling rivalry and difficult family dynamics than anything else. When the two girls work out their differences, the elder sister realizes how close she came to falsely believing slander against her sister. An important point is made against being caught up in group-think and mass hysteria.

Obviously the subject matter is a bit touchy for very small children - parents will need to be ready to explain witchcraft and witchery as the Puritans understood it. And, of course, several people are executed in the course of these trials, and a small child will likely be deeply upset by the injustice and cruelty of those involved. I do not believe that children should be prevented from learning about this important stain on our history, just that this learning should take place in a nurturing environment where the parent can answer these hard questions.

~ Ana Mardoll

This book is almost heartbreaking. It concerns a Puritan girl named Deliverance living in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 17th century. Everything starts when several girls from the church start having dreadful convulsions - twisting their bodies in odd ways and crying out desperately - mostly in gibberish. Gradually, more and more people become "afflicted," and the people of salem are convinced that a "witch" is torturing the girls. They claim to have visions and dreams in which the spectors of perfectly respectable people are coming to pinch and bite them. More and more people are put on trial, and dozens of people are imprisoned merely because of the girls' words. At first, Liv has a hot passion against the supposed witches. But when her dear, motherly friend, Goody Corey, to whom she has been acquainted for some time, is accused as a witch, she begins to doubt that the girls are really telling the truth. Are they merely faking their antics? Are they really being tortured by witches? To this day, it remains a mystery. This book is a horribly sad book that really goes into detail about the Salem Witch Trials and the horrid reality of it.
-A 11-year-old reader

I bought this book for my daughter. The Dear America books are good books for young girls to read. I do recommend the book, One Eye Laughing, The Other Weeping. This book will make you cry. My daughter wasn't sure if she could even finish the book, but she couldn't put it down.

I love most of the books in the Dear America series and this particular book covering the period of the Salem Witch Trials made for an interesting read. It is written [as with all the other books in the series] in the form of diary entries by 12-year-old Deliverance Trembley, an orphan who lives with her seventeen-year-old sick sister Mem [her brother is in the military] on a farm in Salem Village in 1691. Her uncle who is also guardian to Deliverance and Mem has gone away to sea and has warned the girls not to disclose the information to others.Things are stressful enough but worse is to come as a group of girls start accusing villagers of witchcraft causing panic, confusion and terror. Deliverance begins to question the girls' credibility when seemingly innocent people are accused of witchcraft.

The story here though fiction is based on actual events in history and makes for riveting reading. For those who would like to read other works of fiction inspired by the Salem Witch Trials, I would recommend A Break with Charity [a YA novel written by Ann Rinaldi] and also The Witch of Blackbird Pond [for younger readers]. There is also a very interesting and authentic TV production centring on the Salem Witch Trials titled Three Sovereigns for Sarah [starring Vanessa Redgrave] which brings the events to life onscreen.