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Witch Child (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I am a witch..." (more)
Key Phrases: great cabin, Reverend Johnson, Elias Cornwell, John Rivers (more...)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (133 customer reviews)

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Amazon Price New from Used from
  Library Binding, November 13, 2008 $17.99 $17.99 --
  Paperback, May 11, 2009 $8.99 $4.63 $3.99
  Paperback, April 1, 2002 -- $1.59 $0.01
  Audio, Cassette, Audiobook, March 3, 2002 -- $11.91 --
  Unknown Binding, December 31, 2000 $12.99 $11.64 --
  Audio, Download Offsite Link $14.70 or less with new Audible membership

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

During the witch hunts of the mid-1600s, many young Englishwomen died on the gallows, innocent victims of false or hysterical accusations of witchcraft. But what of those women who actually claimed the name "witch" as their own? In the pages of her secret journal, Mary Nuttall reveals what it is like to live in a climate of mistrust and piety in which differences are dangerous and rumors can kill, where she must hide her heritage as a healer and pagan. With a sure hand, she describes her beloved grandmother's trial and hanging as a witch, her own rescue by a mysterious noblewoman, and her eventual passage to the New World and the forest settlement of Beulah. There Mary falls under a curtain of suspicion when she willingly chooses to explore the dark woods shunned by the fearful colonists and makes friends with some of the spiritual native people. When several girls in the community begin to shriek and swoon, and the same minister who damned Mary's grandmother comes to search for signs of witchcraft, Mary is subjected to close and deadly scrutiny.

Breaking with most historical fiction about witchcraft (such as Elizabeth Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond), British author Celia Rees raises the stakes and the tension by placing a real witch at the center of her story. Witch Child is an engrossing, suspenseful novel that will cast a spell over both readers of historical fiction and fans of witchcraft series from Circle of Three to Sweep. --Jennifer Hubert --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.



From Publishers Weekly

Though much of Rees's debut novel moves at a lackadaisical pace, its opening scenes are riveting: Mary, 14, watches as her grandmother the only family she has ever known is tortured, tried and finally hung as a witch. Afterward, a mysterious protector sends Mary away from England with a group of Puritans bound for a remote Massachusetts settlement an odd haven indeed for a girl reputed to be a witch. The book unfolds through Mary's diary entries. She tries to be "the perfect little Puritan maid" during the voyage and, upon reaching America, travels with her fellow passengers to a new settlement. But there Mary is drawn to the forest and a Native American boy, Jaybird (grandson of an elder who is, of course, a wise healer), raising the suspicions of her neighbors. Crisis looms when Mary becomes the scapegoat of a witch trial centering on the hysterical behavior of a gaggle of privileged Puritan girls (shades of The Crucible). Though the story is filled with authentic-seeming historic detail, Mary behaves more like a 21st-century teenager with a penchant for things New Age than a product of her own era: she is, for example, one of the only settlers enlightened enough to appreciate the local Native Americans ("The Indians go lightly in the world, that is all"). An afterword provides links to a Web site, as well as a request for "information regarding any of the individuals and families mentioned." A sequel is forthcoming. Hampered by wandering story lines and some stereotyped supporting cast members, this seductive material never quite comes together. Nevertheless, it will likely attract teen horror fans who flocked to The Blair Witch Project (a "foreword" hints at similar trappings, claiming that the story has been pieced together from a collection of papers found sewn into a colonial-era quilt). Ages 12-up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Product Details

  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Candlewick (April 1, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0763618292
  • ISBN-13: 978-0763618292
  • Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (133 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #358,554 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Celia Rees
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Celia Rees Page
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I am a witch. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
great cabin
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Reverend Johnson, Elias Cornwell, John Rivers, Reverend Cornwell, Goody Johnson, Meeting House, Jethro Vane, Widow Hesketh, Sarah Garner, Goody Francis, Tom Carter, Elizabeth Denning, Ezekiel Francis, Master Morse, Nathaniel Clench, Deborah Vane, Josiah Crompton, Obadiah Wilson, God's Providence, Ned Cardwell, Rebekah Rivers, Sarah Rivers, Eliza Nuttall, Jeremiah Vane, Jonah Morse
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Customer Reviews

133 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (133 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great suspense!!!!!!, July 8, 2002
A Kid's Review
I bought this book thinking it was going to be similar to The Witch of Blackbird Pond. In fifth grade, I read that book for class. While I enjoyed that book, I like this one much better. Witch Child shows you Mary's thoughts, so you feel like you are right next to Mary. Because it is in a diary form, you don't feel like you are an outsider happening to look into someone's life. Instead of knowing the thoughts of everyone, all you know is what Mary would know, and you find out information when Mary finds out. I like history, and I but what I like even better are books that don't have a textbook feeling to them, and this is definetly the latter. Celia Rees put a lot of suspense into this book, so there is never a dull moment. No one else I know has read it, but I hope that boys don't think that it is "girly", and that just because girls like it, it is dumb. This is NOT a girly book, it is a wonderful book about trying to survive during the time of the witch hunts. And, NO, witches were not always women, they were men sometimes, too.

What is the best part, I think, is that she can actually see into the future, and only a few close friends who are trying to help her know. She is struggling to keep her secret a secret, because if someone found out, she would be killed imediately.

I think that this is one of the best books ever, and I can't wait for the sequal to come out.

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't have been any better., July 14, 2001
This review is from: Witch Child (Paperback)
Mary was raised in a small English village by an old woman she knew as her grandmother. The year is now 1659, and Mary is fourteen. Suspicion has fallen on her grandmother, a healer, and she ends up being hung for witchcraft. Mary herself is a witch - but has never hurt anyone. She was born with powers she never asked for and does not understand. The villagers plan to turn on Mary next, but she escapes with the aid of a wealthy woman who turns out to be her mother. Her "grandmother" is not her grandmother at all, but her mother's childhood nursemaid. Her mother still will not care for her, but she does provide Mary with a ticket for a ship bound for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Disguising herself as a Puritan, Mary sets out. But trouble and sorrow follow her across the ocean and into the wilderness. Even in the New World, Mary's life is threatened by the powerful leaders of the community, who are prejudiced against anyone who is different. The story was told through the form of diary entries written by Mary. Since there was an open ending, I really hope there is a sequel. Over the course of the book, I came to really care about what happened to Mary, and I'd love to read about what happened to her.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A COMPELLING STORY EXPRESSIVELY READ, July 19, 2001
This review is from: Witch Child (Audio Cassette)
This compelling and sometimes heartbreaking story is given an indelible reading by British actress Jennifer Ehle. A Tony Award winner for her performance in "The Real Thing, " she also appeared on Broadway with Alan Cumming in "Design For Living." Miss Ehle's expressive voice adds dramatic resonance to an already commanding narrative.

Set in 1659, "Witch Child" is the story of young Mary Newbury, the granddaughter of a witch. Mary witnesses the torture and death of her adored grandmother and fears for her future until she is offered sanctuary across the ocean in America.

However, upon arrival on these shores Mary discovers that she is among not only strangers, but people who fear and hate. She must disguise herself as a devout Puritan or imperil her life.

Celia Rees, who is described as an "aficionado of the supernatural" has recreated a time when being different was not tolerated and brought it to vivid life through the fictional diary of Mary Newbury.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars I have read this again and again...
My copy of this book has been read on probably four or five different occassions and lost (since I keep reading it so much) and found again and very much loved through it all. Read more
Published 20 days ago by ShyViolet

5.0 out of 5 stars A Welcome Surprise
Not realizing that this book's sequel, Sorceress, was a young adult novel (it was on a shelf in a friend's home) I picked it up on a whim and gave it a try, loved it, then bought... Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. Marlene Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars Witch Child Book Review by Trinity F.
Do you know your parents? Or have you known only one person your entire life? Your grandmother?Mary Newbury only

know her grandmother. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Christine E. Wagner

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read for Teens
"Witch Child" is written in a diary format. Mary is a young girl living in the 17th century, during a time where religious fervor reigned and witch-hunts were a frequent. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Reina Santana

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Judge this Book by its Cover
I loved this book. There are some writers who have such an amazing way
with words, and Celia Rees is one of them. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Morgan Lightfoot

3.0 out of 5 stars intriguing
I love a good reference to the Salem times as much as anyone, so I have nothing against the sly horror of lies and rebellion and betrayal. And Ms. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Emily Taylor

4.0 out of 5 stars Just a normal child witch
One of the reasons I enjoyed this book was the simplicity of the story while offering young readers the chance to have a history lesson of life in 1600's. Read more
Published 19 months ago by June P. Ahern

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping read
The story starts off in the 1600s during the witch-hunt times, where young Mary Newbury has to begin a new life after the death of her grandmother. Read more
Published on September 28, 2007 by Josie Noecker

3.0 out of 5 stars Ok book
Reminiscent of Arthur Miller's Crucible. Nothing too original and the writing style is mediocre. But my 12 year old niece thoroughly enjoyed this book. Read more
Published on August 29, 2007 by S. Sou

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
I read this book a couple of months ago and I thought it was really good the only down fall was that there are dull parts in the book.
Published on May 9, 2007 by Sarah Pisman

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