"Kit hesitated. She didn't want to admit how disappointing she found this first glimpse of America. The bleak line of shore surrounding the gray harbor was a disheartening contrast to the shimmering green and white that fringed the turquoise bay of Barbados which was her home."
The year is 1687. Katherine Tyler, known as Kit, has travelled to Connecticut because her grandfather has died. The only family she has now is an aunt who she has never met who lives in Westersfield. Aunt Rachel fell in love with Puritan and ran away to America. Kit is a lively and impetuous girl but these are complex times. It is the time of the witch trials. People in these tiny settlements are suspicious of strangers. Their Puritan ways are severe. Added to this Kit has not told her aunt or uncle that she is coming.
Publisher blurb: Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1687. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Kit's unconventional background and high-spirited ways immediately clash with the Puritanical lifestyle of her uncle's household, and despite her best efforts to adjust, it seems Kit will never win the favour of those around her. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place, and just when it seems she must give up, she finds a kindred spirit. But Kit's friendship with old Hannah Tupper, who is believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves more taboo than she could have imagined, and ultimately Kit is forced to choose between her heart and her duty.
At a recent charity book sale I spied a copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond. I have wanted to read this book for a long time partly because I thought I had read it as a child (this turns out to be wrong) and partly because I am trying to find a book I did read in late Primary school about a young girl who goes to live with a mysterious old woman in a swamp and I thought that might be this book (it wasn't).
Did enjoy The Witch of Blackbird pond although I did not understand most of the political and historical references. I did enjoy the love story, the kindness of Kit, her sweet close observations of the people in the town and that all important happy ending.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1958) won the John Newbery Medal in 1959. I have put a selection of covers at the start of this post. You can see more here at the School Library Journal where Elizabeth Bird talks about this book. Listen to the first chapter.
Here are some companion reads:
And if the topic of strict religious practices is one you want to explore try to find this very old Australian book:
One more thing to add here. The book I am looking for that I read around age eleven contained a similar story of a girl going to live in a strange environment. The woman she lives with is, I think, shunned by the people of the town. The young girl finds the old woman strange and difficult to talk to and yet each day the woman packs up the most delicious lunch for the girl to eat at school. The lunch is packed into the most perfect little containers. Do you recognise this book? Please add a title in the comments.
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