Hooray, summer break is finally here! So, of course, I've started to read, read, read. One book that I'm about halfway through is called The Witch of Blackbird Pond. This book is really exciting and has a lot of interesting details. For example, back when the 13 American colonies were being formed it was thought of as scandalous for a girl or woman to learn to swim! I wonder why?
One thing I noticed about the story are the similarities between the characters and people I know. These are below...
1. Kit is a bold, headstrong, impulsive, and adventurous girl. She sailed from Barbados to Connecticut to live with her aunt's family at a time when there was great unrest in the colonies. To me, she seems a lot like Amna.
2. Judith is the young and beautiful daughter of Kit's aunt. Her traits are amiability, fun to be around, and shy when first meeting people. I think that she acts a lot like Sarah.
3. Mercy is Judith's sister, the peacekeeper of their family. She is very quiet, patient, considerate, and works as a loving school teacher. Her personality is pretty similar to Mrs.Larkin's.
This book is fabulous; I would definitely recommend it to anyone. But, if I had a chance to write to the author, there is one main thing that I would bring up. This is to clarify the old-fashioned ideas throughout the story. It talks about how early American settlers are totally against bigotry aka witchcraft. The whole concept is extremely confusing, and it makes me want to know why it was so feared. People were accused and killed for being a witch if there were even minor (and sometimes fake) charges against them! Isn't that unbelievable?
Before I go, I will share some really cool words that I read in some books besides this one. Some of them are...
1. Ignominious- weak and ineffective
2. Obsequious- overly eager to please
3. Nefarious- very, VERY wicked
To conclude, I'm having a great start to my summer vacation that has been filled with reading. You should really read The Witch of Blackbird Pond. If you're anything like me, than you'll ♥ it. Revoir! (Goodbye)
Did not know the word nefarious! Hmm. I'll have to be careful about using that one. One of the funniest things to me is when my students call each other by character traits or words that are unfamiliar to the student being called that word. LOL. I can just imagine me using this word next year during Social Studies class. :)
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to me that people can become so afraid of something that is not even true. The crazed attitudes remind of other things in history like the Hollywood communism "scare" and even the bird flu a few years back. Of course the bird flu was real, but the hype was way out of proportion. You are right. There is some precipitating event. (How do you like that word?) Why don't you do a bit of research and see if you can post back to me how the idea of witches began in Salem? It wouldn't take you just a few minutes to find out. Of course, there will be the obvious answer, and then there will be an answer that you may come up with on your own after a good bit of thinking!
Have fun with the rest of the book. You had me laughing with those comparisons. :)