A Break With Charity is Rinaldi's mostly imagined account of Susanna English, teenage daughter of parents Philip and Mary actual people who were accused in the Salem Witch Trials. Susanna is fourteen and though she deeply desires to mingle with other girls of her age group in Salem finds herself to be an outcast due to her family's relative affluence and her father's rejection of the Puritan church. Her curiosity about the other girls' activities brings her into the company of the Reverend Parris's slave, Tituba, and eventually embroils her in the hysteria of the witch trials. Though the younger Ann Putnam herself tells Susanna that the witchcraft accusations are scam at the start, she forbids Susanna to tell anyone claiming that she will call out on her parents. As Susanna struggles with how to deal with this information, the consequences of her silence grow and grow until the "afflicted" girls begin to believe their own lies and eventually break charity and accuse her parents despite Susanna's silence.
Through Susanna's eyes, Rinaldi examines the Salem Witch Trials inside and out. She reveals to us the boredom and powerlessness felt by teenage Puritan girls, both of which made the chaos caused by the witch trials and the attention paid them by high-ranking Puritans all that much more alluring. Rinaldi explores the weaknesses of Puritan society and a persistant feeling of religious righteousness and judgement, both of which allowed the hysteria of the witch trials to explode to ridiculous proportions causing immense loss of innocent life. Through Susanna's narrative, Rinaldi provides practically just enough context to whet reader's appetites for additional writings on the Salem Witch Trials and helpfully encloses a list of her references and additional reading on the subject. Rinaldi's strong grasp of history and her female narrators who are never perfect but are on their way to finding the right path make for excellent reading experiences for young adults that encourage a healthy interest in history.
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For what age do you recommend this? Is it too much to be read aloud to a 10-year-old? We just finished reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond, so this would tie in nicely.
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SmallWorld
Found you at Semicolon. I am in a minority, perhaps of one, who dislike the Rinaldi books. I love her subjects, and got so excited to read them, but her writing style fails to move me. It bumps me out of the story, if that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteSmall World, I can't see why it wouldn't be fine for 10-year-old. As a matter of fact, I just looked at Amazon.com and the Publishers Weekly review there recommends it for ages 10 and up, so it would probably be just right to tie in with Witch of Blackbird Pond.
ReplyDeletegirl detective, when I was younger, I didn't much notice the style, but now I think I might have a sense of what you mean. I didn't devour it nearly as quickly this time around as when I was younger. The one major criticism I have of Rinaldi sometimes is that she does the "info dump" dialogue thing every now and again which features a character saying something that seems more like something out of a history book than something an actual person would actually say! Not something I noticed when I was in the age group that her writing is designed to appeal to, but definitely something I notice now.
Megan! I tagged you for the Make My Day award. Come out and play:
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=) Jill
In elementary school I had a g/t class that met once a week, and in fifth grade we acted out the Salem witch trials. I was Elizabeth, and it was so much fun to be as ridiculous as possible during the trials. I think that really brought home to all of us (at least the ones playing the 'victims') how something like that could've happened.
ReplyDeleteEva, we did something similar in a 10th grade Honors English. I think I was charged with acting the part of afflicted girl Mercy Lewis. Unfortunately, despite its merits at bringing home the events to us, the only memory I've taken away from it was the bad grade I got for not acting "afflicted" enough. *shrugs*
ReplyDeleteWonderful review! Think I'm going to have to go raid my daughter's bookshelves again...pretty sure she has this one. She loves historical fiction, and Ann Rinaldi is one of her favorites. But I don't think I've ever read anything by her.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Debi!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely raid the shelves and give Rinaldi a try! =D
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ReplyDeleteThis was THE book that got me hooked on historical fiction. Just reading your review brought back memories of 5th grade. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSusanna's Parents names were Philip and Mary, not John and Mary.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started to learn about the Salem Witch Trials, I only thought it was in Salem, Massachusetts, but after reading A Break With Charity, i understood how much it spread to the other colonies. This book is very detailed as to what happened during that time. Ann Rinaldi is a great author.
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