The Elixir by Lindsay Galvin illustrated by Kristina Kister

Ann has inherited the gift of healing from her late grandmother. She works with her parents, brother and sister in the family apothecary.

"The rest of my family followed recipes exactly when they made our normal tinctures, infusions and syrups. It was an open secret that I didn't follow a recipe. My parents only let me get away with it because my tinctures worked so well. My family also knew I scratched a spiral mark into the base of the glass bottles containing my special tinctures. They didn't know it was the sign my grandmother had taught me and that it helped my medicines work."

You have probably noticed some arcane words in this quote - tinctures, infusions and syrups. The year is 1665 and so, yes, this a story set in the past but wait a minute do you know what was happening at that time - the witch trials. Now the stage is set - Ann has gifts but others will be suspicious. There are witch hunters roaming the countryside. Ann and her siblings have been left in charge of the shop because her parents have been called away. To help make ends meet a border has moved into the attic room - and very strangely this young man is Isaac Newton. These are also the times of the plague. If Ann is able to heal the townsfolk will she be accused of witchcraft and can she survive the drowning trial?

Ann forms an alliance with Isaac- and together they strive to make a very special elixir - the elixir of life. Then her brother is in a terrible accident and Ann, without permission, administers a few drops of the mixture. Yes, her brother is healed. Isaac is furious and so in a moment of recklessness Ann grabs the elixir and drinks it. What will be the consequences?

Here are a few text quotes:

"Grandmother taught me that grinding herbs on a full moon, then letting them soak in the moonlight would make powerful extracts. ... I started with Vervain. Its colour was a rich chestnut brown, excellent for restoring strength and vitality. Next, I bruised some Horsetail and Yarrow, used in cases of bleeding. These were fluffy shades of blue and grey."

"I described how when I touched people, I saw their colours in my mind. When I knew the colours of my customers, I could recognise when a hue was missing and find the mixture to restore them. I explained how ingredients that were matched to a person's colour nearly always strengthened them."

This book has 110 pages so it is a quick one to read but it is also an absolute page turner. 

This is a truly gripping story where the tension is palpable as danger builds and impossible choices are made. There are plenty of unexpected twists and turns with an ending that took me completely by surprise. A masterful blending of history, science and fantasy that left me utterly captivated – and astounded! The illustrations are absolutely stunning and capture the time period and the emotion of the story perfectly. An enthralling page-turner that captures the indomitable spirit of a young girl who uses her innate abilities to help others and stand against hatred and prejudice. Book Craic

Lindsay Galvin packs lots of action into this short, ultra-readable novel, as Ann finds herself in danger after danger, while working to do as much good as possible. The final twist in the tale is particularly satisfying and this atmospheric, immersive story will keep readers gripped from beginning to end while the presence of Isaac Newton is an added treat. Love Reading 4Kids

Bookseller blurb: With a witchfinder skulking about town, gifted healer Ann and a young Isaac Newton must be careful not to draw too much attention in this high-stakes story from Lindsay Galvin. Will the discovery of the Elixir of Life lead to a death sentence for a talented young healer? Ann Storer has inherited her grandmother's mysterious gift of healing, which she shares through the special tinctures she dispenses in her family's apothecary shop. When she combines her talents with the genius of a young Isaac Newton, recently arrived to board above the shop, the two create an incredible elixir with seemingly unlimited powers. But seventeenth-century England is a dangerous place to display any special abilities, and Ann must hide all evidence when witchfinder Abel Geach arrives in town. So when the plague starts to run rife and those she loves are in danger, will Ann risk everything to help them?

When I see a Barrington Stoke title in a bookshop I always pick it up and read the blurb. I wonder why our stores here in Australia don't make a bigger deal of this series - they only seem to stock one or two at any one time. I found this one in a Newsagent in Deniliquin - they added it to their children's book section (which is terrific by the way) in November last year. If you don't have any books from this series click the label on this post to see other titles. I also recognised the art on the cover of this book by Kristina Kister (The Book of Wondrous Possibilities by Deb Abela).

I have also read these historical fiction books by Lindsay Galvin:

The Great Phoenix of London

My friend the Octopus

And The Elixir reminded me of these two books:

I love all the different cover of Tuck Everlasting

I have recently discovered this series and this title would be a terrific follow on from The Elixir

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

 

"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:

The forest of Moon and Sword

The 13th Floor - a ghost story

Fire Girl

The Thickety (for mature readers)

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.  

The Forest of Moon and Sword by Amy Raphael

My advance copy of The Forest of Moon and Sword says this book is "a thrilling adventure" and I totally agree.

It is the years of the witch trials. Any woman can be accused and the measure of guilt - float (you are a witch) or drown (the woman is not a witch but she is of course now dead).  King James has sent Witchfinder Matthew Hopkins across the country to find and execute all witches. Yes there are trials but no woman is ever found innocent. 

As this story opens we meet Art Flynt and her mother. The soldiers have arrived and mother is carried away with five other women. Art hides until all is safe and then she reads a letter from her mother that tells her to leave Scotland and travel through England to Essex and the town of Manningtree. She must arrive before the summer solstice - this will be the day of the witch trials.

Now the long journey begins. With only her precious horse called Lady, Art sets off to rescue her mother. 

The Forest of Moon and Sword is such an engrossing book. The action is fast paced, the relationships are important and special and there are twists and turns to leave you gasping and also desperately hoping Art can reach her mother in time. The final scenes where Art breaks into the fortified castle where the women are held are especially thrilling. This debut book by Amy Raphael (middle grade) will be published in January 2021.

"Amy has created the perfect middle-grade concoction: dark adventure, friendship and a race-against-time plot, fuelled by love; as well as a fierce female protagonist who knows her own strength and who isn’t afraid to wield a sword! I’m hugely excited to be launching Amy Raphael into the children’s market with this very special book." The Book Seller

I would pair this book with these:

Fire Girl

Fire Witch

Fire Witch by Matt Ralphs

The figure swivelled towards her. Hazel's firelight illuminated  a long beak-like nose and two flat, unblinking eyes. Before she could decide if what she was seeing was even human, it unbent to its full, obscene height. Up it rose, slender, menacing, taller than Titus, taller than any man she'd ever laid eyes on.

Three years ago (it doesn't seem that long) I discovered Fire Girl by Matt Ralphs. I described it as horror fantasy and I loved it!  I have now emerged from reading the second installment Fire Witch. This volume can stand alone but I highly recommend you try to read Fire Girl first.

Hazel Hooper is desperate to rescue her mother from the underworld. She is travelling with an elderly demon hunter called Titus. He proves himself a loyal friend but in the end it is Hazel who must face the Matthew Hopkins, the Witch Hunter General, and his prisoner Nicholas Murrell.  It is Nicholas Murrell, the demonologist, who can help Hazel find her mother but he is a prisoner and he is undergoing the most gruesome torture at the hands of Matthew Hopkins.

Hazel needs to disguise herself, join the Grand Order of Witch Hunters, get inside the stronghold jail where Nicholas is being held, retrieve the Necronomicon which contains the circle spell she needs to open the underworld and hopefully, also, release 364 witches who are held captive in a hulk on the Thames prior to their mass burning.  Luckily she has Titus and her wonderful familiar - the mouse called Bramley - to help her. She also has tremendous determination and courage.

You will feel as though you really are in Cromwell's London with all the smells and sounds and terrifying dangers. The creature I described at the start of this review is killing young girls across London and yes it is another demon which Hazel and Titus must defeat.

Here is a scene from the London of the 1600s.

"Southwark High Road struck a straight line between handsome timbered houses all the way to London Bridge and the Thames. It was market day, and a swirling sea of people flowed around stalls and handcarts, bartering for everything from hats to honey bread. From her vantage point ... Hazel saw a water-seller struggling under the weight of his tanks; a printer with ink-stained fingers hawking pamphlets; two noblemen in frock coats and wigs walking arm in arm out of a haberdashery, and a beggar child behind them with her eyes fixed on their pockets."

As we saw in the first book, Matt Ralphs gives us brilliant chapter titles with quotes from various fictitious but historically plausible characters.

Here are some as examples:

"The wall between our world and the demons' is paper thin and the tears are beginning to show. (From) Divinations of Oblivion by Brentford Hinds."

"One witch can be made to give up another and she another, and she yet another. (From) A forest of Gallows by Albrecht Prinz."

"Ward off plaguey vapours by chewing tobacco, rue or angelica. (From) Cures for common Folk by Rachel Kellehar."

Sadly I do need to warn you - this is not the final book and I cannot find any details of the next installment. Here is a terrific review from The Book Bag.  Here is an interview with Matt. You could follow these two books with the series Barnaby Grimes by Paul Stewart. I would also recommend A most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee and A very unusual Pursuit by Catherine Jinks book one in the City of Orphans series.