The Witch of Blackbird Pond – a review

I have just finished reading the Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. I have been reading this to my three middle school children as part of our study of American History and Geography studies.

This is a very fast paced and interesting story of a young woman named Kit who leaves her home in Barbados after the death of her grandfather to live with the only other living relative she has, an aunt in Connecticut.

Kit’s upbringing has been free and easy. After the death of her parents, her grandfather raised her on his Barbdose plantation. While she did learn to become an avid reader, Kit spent much of her time in what we would consider unschooling! But after her grandfather’s death, Kit had no choice but to sell all of her grandfather’s estate to pay off his debts. She then fled to Connecticut not only to reconnect with her mother’s only sister, but to avoid a marriage of convenience to a much older man.

Kit’s free spirit are immediately at odds with her Aunt and Uncle’s Puritan community. Feeling much like an outcast it isn’t long before she befriends the community’s other outcast, Hannah, an elderly Quaker lady who is an alleged witch, living on the edge of Blackbird Pond.

But being an ousider in a closely knit Puritan Community can come with a price, one that Hannah has paid dearly in the past and which Kit is violently forced to deal with.

I love romance novels and this book has a number of involved and complicated relationships woven throughout the plot. The plot also involves a lot of potential geography lessons regarding Connecticut and the sea routes down the eastern coast of the future United States.

Historical topics are part of the action as well as religious freedoms and communities fight between themselves, royalists clash with colonists, and even the treatment of women and children during colonial times.

There is a lot of food for thought and potential rabbit trails for the homeschool family to explore. I found it to be a real page turner towards the end (yep, I sneaked ahead and read to the end) and I have a feeling my kids are going to be eager to get back to where we left off today, as soon as we we’re done with breakfast tomorrow.

This is a Newberry Winner – an award it well deserves!

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