Class of ’88: Junior
by Linda A. Cooney

Five friends. Nick, the golden boy, Celia the beautiful, Sean the thinker, Allie the wild, Meg the brave.

– Summary to be transcribed when I get home and have the book with me. Oops!–

I have to admit that although reading the first two in this series triggered memories of reading the books the first time (in 1987/1988) I don’t recall much about this Junior year of the five friends at all. But what struck me was this – the book fit in very well with a guest post I wrote for a blog this week. It was all about how tough it is to be a teen and the stuff I went through, and that others go through and how hard it is to be yourself in high school and not just the person the “cool kids” think you should be.

Although the cover of this third book depicts Sean and Nick, the book has a large focus on Allie, who after spending 6 months in New York City (because her father was transferred) has come back to Northern California and Redwood High and has changed considerably.

The funny thing I realized as I was reading (and I think I felt similarly when I was 12) was that the way they described Allie’s clothing and look (all black, combat boots, black dyed hair) is similar to the way I dress now (ok so I don’t own combat boots) and the way I have always WANTED to dress and envied when I was a kid (when I had no guts to follow through). Wow that was a long sentence with a lot of parenthesis. Oh, well.

Celia, the blond-all-about-being-popular one, is constantly shamed by her hair stylist mother who wears her hair with blue or purple or pink streaks in it. HOLY COW did I WANT that kind of hair when I was 12 and here is a book that promotes preppy and following the crowd and shuns her. Had they never watched Jem and the Holograms? (I was totally going to be in that cartoon band, by the way.) The fact that most of the kids in these books look down on those whose style and expression is different is a HUGE point in this series. It’s hard being in high school and it’s very hard to walk to the beat of your own drum when 90% of the population is telling you that makes you a loser and uncool.

Allie discovered while she was away that she didn’t like the same things her best friend since they were born liked. She felt because she didn’t like school or dressing in the latest fashions she had no future – a slogan that was printed on her black jacket which she sported daily. Celia shunned her and made it a project to get Allie back in the good graces of the cool and popular, but Allie didn’t want anything to do with it. The only person she could talk to was Sean who went from being bullied and being called a nerd in Freshman and Sophomore years to being respected because he was smart and able to repair computers, amps, tech stuff. He was finally “cool” and because of this almost lost his first girlfriend – a girl named Brooke who was PROUD to be different and quirky and lost his friendship with Allie.

Meanwhile Meg and Nick were on the back burner for this book. They are still in love with each other but won’t admit it and continuously date people they don’t really want just to make the other jealous or have someone. Yawn. Boring.

What struck me the most was how much this book resonated with how I felt growing up and even though this is one of the stories I remember the least in the series, I know that I must have felt the same way when I first read it – EXCEPT! – I would have been way too insecure and shy to be that punk, alternative, new-wave girl that I longed to be. These days? I wear what I want, when I want and I will opt for comfort over fashion 99.9% of the time. I am the Allie that was emerging in this book, only a lot less moody.

Allie does find something she loves to do in the end – acting. She joins the drama club and gets the lead part in a play. She is shunned for this by her now former BFF, Celia because only lame losers join drama and don’t focus on dating college boys, prom, or cheerleading.

Celia has always been my least favourite character in this series. I have always loved Allie and Sean. Nick, although he sounds dreamy (and constantly refered to as “blonde good look” and yet always drawn with dark brown hair and eyes on the covers) and Meg have always just been background, never really thought about characters. Do not like or dislike them. They are just there. Rather bland.

I’m just starting the final book out of the four – we’re about to enter Senior year and finally become the official Class of ’88!

Oh, and I am so sick of basketball ALWAYS being written as “b-ball”. Not once is anyone referred to or the game mentioned as a fully written out word. Did Americans really talk like that in the ’80s? I don’t remember. I am pretty sure that here in Canada we often used the full word. Say it with me now, “BASKET – BALL”. There now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

Class of ’88

1. Freshman
2. Sophomore
3. Junior
4. Senior

Perchance to Dream (Théâtre Illuminata, Act II)
by Lisa Mantchev

The stuff that dreams are made on.

Act Two, Scene One

Growing up in the enchanted Thèâtre Illuminata, Beatrice Shakespeare Smith learned everything about every play ever written. She knew the Players and their parts, but she didn’t know that she, too, had magic. Now, she is the Mistress of Revels, the Teller of Tales, and determined to follow her stars. She is ready for the outside world. (goodreads.com – snipped for length)

Lisa Mantchev has done it again! Once more was I enchanted, enthralled and something else that starts with “en” that I can’t think of at the moment. The magical sequel to Eyes Like Stars did not disappoint and is yet another beautifully written fairytale that made me think of swirling ribbons of colours as I read each page.

I have read nothing like these books. Mantchev has the market cornered on unique, fairytale telling with a whole slew of literary references thrown in – mainly that fellow Shakespeare whose plays have always managed to both enchant and frustrate the hell out of me at the same time. There is something so magical and beautiful about the writing and story that just makes me hug the book every so often as I read it. I love it to pieces. I can’t even formulate coherent thoughts about the book because all I get while I read is FEELING and COLOURS that flow around me like ribbon or oil paints.

This book even had that Perfect Book Smell that the first one did and another amazingly beautiful cover. (Which by the way, I only noticed once I had finished the book that there’s a third person on the cover! I didn’t notice Nate there at all when I just saw the photo online!)

I will admit to being slightly confused at times the way the scene changed so often and the multitude of characters that came into play, but I got the gist of what was happening and after a few re-read paragraphs I didn’t let it slow down my reading of the story. Although I am not completely sure what Berti’s father is, or was, or is supposed to be and I don’t think I have a decent picture in my head of Washbar (er, there’s an accent in that name somewhere… on the a? I’m too lazy to go get the book from upstairs to check. Sorry. ).

I’m also confused as to why Bertie is so hung up on Nate. I suppose because they have a history together and Ariel just sort of showed up in the first book as she was older? Not sure. Loving them both equally is an interesting take on things, heck, I’ve been in a similar situation in my life. I’m a little sick of Ariel though as the “I have to protect you!!!!! OMG!!11!!” guy and less of the bad guy. I liked him as a bad guy.

And of course the four faeries had me – and my husband! – laughing out loud once more! Especially the first page with “It was the best of pie. It was the worst of pie.” Considering my husband had just been going crazy over having bought pie at the farmer’s market this week I read him that and said “apparently you’re a Shakespearean faerie”. heh.

Acts of the Théâtre Illuminata

• Eyes Like Stars
• Perchance to Dream

To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee

I had planned to record more thoughts on my reading of this book as I did for the first 8 chapters, however fate seemed to have other ideas.

Unfortunately (or, fortunately) I have no means of making another video since the first one (in which I ramble on about my thoughts of To Kill a Mockingbird). I am out of batteries for my digital camera and my husband’s MacBook Pro is in the shop for 2-4 weeks to replace the CD drive.

I shall just ramble away here in text form.

Firstly to remind everyone, this past July 11th marked the 50th anniversary of this classic by Harper Lee. I had never read it before now. I always wanted to, but we never did this in school and I wasn’t about to buy a classic and read it on my own! Imagine! I’m not smart enough for “classics” and “books that teachers force you to read against your will”. (Hello? King Lear? Yeah, what the hell was that all about!?) But I couldn’t resist the pitch and thought, why this is the perfect opportunity to read this book.

And yes, multiple times I had it confused with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest which I had confused with Of Mice and Men. Both of which I have been told are completely different stories than the one I am writing about right now!

Who knew?

This isn’t a book that is easily made fun of. Not that I was making fun of anything in my video, I was just stating things that came to my head as I read. I will say this though:

To Kill a Mockingbird is the first book I have ever read in my entire life that has made me WANT to take notes as I read. To the point that I had a note pad and pen next to me every time I picked up the book. Hell, I never even did this in SCHOOL when I HAD to. This book was so rich and so complex and so deep that I wanted to write down page numbers and thoughts as I came across them so that I could remember what I felt while reading and not just forget about it when I closed the book.

Aside from my outrage at the grade one classroom scene with the disapproval of reading at home and learning to read and write outside the class room I was also highly touched by the scene where Calpurina takes Jem and Scout to her church and the reactions and lessons learned there.

This is also where I get into nervous territory because there are words and slang in this book that I was brought up being told were WRONG and RACIST so I don’t want to inadvertently offend anyone or suddenly get hate male for the use of words I shouldn’t be using. So I am not going to use any words and just be as vague as possible. As a 30-something, white female I do not know what I can and cannot say without getting into trouble. And I don’t want to get in trouble, so I am refraining!

The church scene was powerful and emotional and I felt sick to my stomach that there was even separation of church back then (and still now?). I grew up not even realizing that the kids in my class were anything other than just kids in my class. (A fact about which we all laughed when we met up after 20 years and one girl said to us “I realized in 10th grade, holy cow! I’m black! It wasn’t something any of us ever noticed or thought about! We were all just kids in the class!” I like that about the town that I grew up in.)

I disliked Mrs. Sat on Her Porch and Insulted People as They Went By and Was Addicted to Morphine. I disliked her a lot and when Jem got in trouble for standing up to her for something she said about his father I don’t think he should have been punished by having to read to that sour old woman for over a month until she died. To be quite frank (not to be confused with Frank, the Mockingbird) I was happy when she died. I thought she deserved it. I don’t care if Atticus was trying to teach Jem a lesson. I think the old coot should have died alone.

Unlike the killing of the “mad” dog. That made me sad and I don’t think the dog should have been shot. And what was all that about “there can’t be a mad dog, it’s February and not August” stuff? Is that some sort of Southern superstition? I have no idea what was going on there. I think the dog was sick, or choking on something and they should have just had a vet take a look at it. Shooting it. Bastards. (if anyone can shed some light on the August mad dog thing I’d appreciate it!)

Did not like Aunt Alexandra and was happy that as much as she tried to throw her weight around the kids never listened to her and for the most part Atticus let them do what they wanted. She was way too focused on trash and status in the community. I hated her and was also glad she didn’t have as big of a part in the story as I thought she was going to.

When book changed modes and focused on the trial of Tom Robinson I could not put it down. I was captivated by the story and the testimonies and was sure, like Jem, of the no-brainer verdict although I knew deep down that it wasn’t going to turn out the way it should. I mean, that was the point of the story, right? To show the differences between whites and blacks in the south in the 30s? To show that all men were not created equal? Makes me sick.

I loved that Scout could see the similarities between what Hitler was doing with the Jews and what the whites were doing with the blacks in her own town but no one else would listen to her. I think that was a pretty awesome comparison to make in this book and that Scout, at almost nine, could see it with clarity though the adults couldn’t was something. I also loved this little bit:

Cecil Jacobs knew what one was, though. When his turn came, he went to the front of the room and began, “Old Hitler-”
“Adolf Hitler, Cecil,” said Miss Gates. “One never begins with Old anybody.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Old Adolf Hitler has been prosecutin’ the-”
“Persecuting, Cecil…”
“Nome, Miss Gates, it says here – well anyway, old Adolf Hitler has been after the Jews and he’s puttin’ ‘em in prisons and he’s taking away all their property and he won’t let any of ‘em out of the country and he’s washin’ all the feeble-minded and-”
“Washing the feeble-minded?”
“Yes ma’am, Miss Gates, I reckon they don’t have sense enough to wash themselves, I don’t reckon an idiot would keep hisself clean.”

I know it’s not really funny in a ha-ha way, but I had to laugh at Cecil keeping the “old” in Hitler’s name and the “washing of the feeble-minded”. If only all that happened was that a few people got an extra scrubbing and bath! There wouldn’t have been much of a war.

I was saddened by the death of Tom Robinson and indifferent about the dead of Bob Ewell. In fact the hole end of the book had me confused. It seems obvious to  me that Jem had nothing to do with Ewell’s death and yet Atticus is adamant that his son be tried for this “murder”. I think the sheriff is honestly telling Atticus the truth that Jem did not kill Ewell and yet Atticus won’t listen. And the fact that Boo Radley came out of his house and brought the kids home – doesn’t that mean that HE might have done it? I read the last two chapters over twice and was still in the dark as to why Atticus won’t believe that Jem was unconscious and did not kill Bob Ewell. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? (Along with the mad dogs in August thing?) I’d be mighty appreciative!

Oh, and after reading this book for 5 days I felt that I would want to break into the same patterns of speech that I was reading in the story. It had this flow to it, lazy sunny days on the front porch with a glass of lemonade and I reckons and never you mind’s. Once I got into the flow of the writing and dialect I found it rather mesmerizing and I’d start to phrase things in a 1930s Southern manner around the house.

I also drank a lot of lemonade while reading this book.

And I have to thank Harper Collins for giving me the push I obviously needed to read this classic novel because I fell in love with it. I have been told by many people that I should now check out the original movie and I think I just might. I’d like to see the movie adaptation of this story. I have had friends tell me it has made them cry every time.

If I can read this book, maybe I can read other classics! Onward to tackle Of  the One Mice that Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest of Men!

(…and hey! I only found out by the last 5 chapters, when I read the back for the millionth time, that Harper Lee is a WOMAN! The entire time I thought she was a man. Oops. You learn something new ever day!)

Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty
by Nick Bruel

It’s Bad Kitty’s birthday, and you’re invited! Bad Kitty’s second illustrated novel is packed with deadpan humor, rich tidbits of cat information — and even some suspense! Who took Kitty’s presents? Why are Kitty’s friends so bizzare? Readers will laugh out loud at Kitty’s feline mood swings, and they’ll be touched by the heartwarming visit from a surprise guest. (goodreads.com)

This delightful book was a gift from a friend which I regifted to my sister and niece (not in a BAD regifting way, mind, just that I have been buying this series for my niece since the first book, Bad Kitty was discovered by me!)

The birthday edition of the series is yet again in “chapter” format although I’d still say it’s closer to a picture book than a middle grade chapter book. This is certainly a book that you can read out loud to your little ones and laugh along with them (or sometimes alone as you might be the only one to get some of the jokes at the moment).

I love Bad Kitty and her mean-spirited way and grumpy demeanor. Just the way she’s drawn appeals to me and my inner grumpy Cat. You get to meet all of her friends from Stinky Kitty (not to be confused with the skunk from my back yard whom we have named as such), Strange Kitty (he wears a top hat!), and Pretty Kitty. The surprise guest mentioned in the summary made me tear up and recall a Garfield special I watched from the 1980s (I think?) which has a touching reunion scene in a lasagna shop (which always, ALWAYS made me cry!).

I completely enjoy this series of books and so does my sister (and niece, though as she’s almost 4 she doesn’t appreciate them the same way we do – but she will as she grows up with my family’s sense of humour). There are to be two more in the series as well which of course I will pick up to complete the collection.

If you happen to be in the children’s section of your bookstore, I implore you to pick up a copy of any of these books (Bad Kitty, Poor Puppy, Bad Kitty Gets a Bath and this one) and try not to smile while you read them! I’ll bet you even laugh out loud once or twice!

So much fun!

Bad Kitty books

1. Bad Kitty (either the original or the Cat-Nipped Edition) – picture book
2. Poor Puppy – picture book
3. Bad Kitty Gets a Bath – chapter book
4. Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty – chapter book
5. Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray (Hardcover – August 2010)

Class of ’88: Sophomore
by Linda A. Cooney

Five friends. Nick, the golden boy, Celia the beautiful, Sean the thinker, Allie the wild, Meg the brave.

Celia flirts outrageously with Redwood High’s #1 b-ball star. She’s not really using him… she’s just trying to get ahead. Meg’s got a new guy, too. So what if Nick thinks he’s too wild for her? Nick doesn’t know everything about Meg. He doesn’t know everything about his buddy Sean, either. Sean sees more than people think he does – especially about what’s happening between L.P. and Allie.

When five friends make it this far together, why should sophomore year tear them apart? (transcribed from the back of the book)

Well, I have made it to chapter 15 of To Kill a Mockingbird and I have rewarded myself with another high school year in Redwood High. I have once more leaped through time going from 2010 to 1960 to 1986 and back to the future! (Fun Fact! It’s been 25 years since Back to the Future came out. Can you believe that? I feel so old. I’ll bet some of you weren’t even born then. Heck, I was NINE!)

But anyhow… yet more awesome 80s pop culture exploded through the pages of this book. The story starts off with a New Year’s eve party at Nick’s house. These teens welcomed in 1986 with excitement, chips and drama! I love chips. So much that I even got up and got myself a bowl of chips to eat while I read the rest of this book. Chips! Yum!

As I read this book I remembered thinking when I read it the first time “Wow, these girls really whine a lot. Get over yourselves.” And remembered thinking that because I thought it again this time around and had a weird sense of deja-u again. I remember not liking this book as much as the first because for the life of me I couldn’t care less about the shallow life of Celia or the clingy “I have to  be with my boyfriend all the time” Allie. I understood Meg’s desire to be less a goody-goody and dependable and try to be more wild but to be frank the boy she starts to date is a douche. I might not have known that curse/slang word when I was 12 but by golly did I think he was a stupid head!

I also remember thinking “Why won’t Meg and Nick just get together already!” when I know deep down that the point of these stories is to show how friends can have feelings change for each other. It was so obvious to the reader (which in part was due to the writing. These stories aren’t really pillars of subtle text. Everything is BAM! IN YOUR FACE!) and I knew then and now that Nick and Meg were struggling with their feelings for each other and each thought the other wouldn’t return them. But come on, already.

I shall travel back to 1960 now and continue my TKoM journey. No video as of yet as the MacBook Pro is in Ye Olde Computer Shoppe getting its cd drive repaired and I am out of batteries that are charged for my digital camera. Obviously fate does not feel I should make any more videos. I might be ok with that.

Oh, and as a side note – I still have trouble spelling Sophomore. Those fancy words you Americans use to classify grades 9-12 are confusing. It took me a looooong time until I was able to figure out the order. I was down with Freshman and Senior, but the ones in the middle were a mystery to me! Silly outside of Quebec school system.

Class of ’88

1. Freshman
2. Sophomore
3. Junior
4. Senior

Class of ’88: Freshman
by Linda A. Cooney

Five friends. Nick, the golden boy, Celia the beautiful, Sean the thinker, Allie the wild, Meg the brave.

Brand-new Redwood High holds a different promise for each of them. Celia could be popular for the first time in her life — if she stops being Allie’s best friend. Nick could be a campus star — but only if he plays by someone else’s rules…rules that don’t include Sean. Meg has a chance to be a leader… and to be passed over by the boy she loves.

Together, they could have faced anything. But after Freshman year, they may never be together again. (transcribed from back of the book)

I needed something to distract me from To Kill a Mockingbird that wasn’t going to completely distract me so that I didn’t finish it. This is a book series that I read, and adored when I was 10-12 years old. I have finally managed to complete the series through bookmooch and ebay to replace the books that were given away years ago (accidentally).

I can honestly say that even when I was a kid I didn’t like realistic fiction. My tastes were always towards the magical and fantastical. So why would I have read a series about 5 kids starting high school? It’s easy, I was drawn to the title of the series.

Class of ’88.

Because I, too, was a Class of ’88. Only not from high school but from elementary school. (Side note: Quebec school system is this – Elementary K-6, High School 7-11, CEGEP 2-3 years before University.) In 1988 I graduated from grade 6 and was ready to go off to high school!

I must have bought these books in the summer, because it’s the only time I can recall buying books. We would have been on vacation at the time at our trailer in up state New York. I remember going to Walden Books. Oh, the memories! That’s where I discovered this series I am sure, but most importantly it was in that Walden Books that I discovered L. J. Smith’s Secret Circle books. Oh, the bliss!

As this book was published in 1987 (per the inside cover) I must have got them the summer before I entered the sixth grade. And it wasn’t until I re-read the book last night that I realized – if they were the class of ’88 then they must have started their Freshman year in 1984! I don’t know why I didn’t realize that when I was 11.

The 80′s pop culture references are amazing. Allie gets excited when the theme to Family Ties comes on (I was in love with that show AND with Michael J. Fox), one of the “mean girls” wears multiple Swatch watches on one arm (I so remember that fad – and never understood it!). When two of the friends start discussing they’d rather be someone other than who they are, the girl chooses Molly Ringwald and the boy chooses Michael J. Fox.

Reading this book now, at 34 (oh, gods, that’s over 20 years after I read it the first time!) makes me feel nostalgic for the 80s even though I did have a miserable experience for most of it.

Also, reading the book again was sort of like reading it for the first time with a strong sense of deja-vu. I had forgotten much of what happened in the story until I started reading and thought, “Oh, yeah! They make that haunted house and Allie meet a Sophomore guy who tries to impress her by saying he can drive her to the dance!” Or, “Right! Whitney was only using Celia to get to Nick!”

I don’t know why I care so much about the lives of these 5 teens who were obviously older than I was when I started reading the series, but I did. And it seems I still do.

I think after every couple of chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird (which I am STILL confusing with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest which I am STILL confusing with Of Mice and Men) I shall read another high school year of these 5 friends. It’s a nice way to break up the slow goings of Scout and Jem and it’s a nice reminder of summers that were spent sitting by Lake Champlain reading a book.

Class of ’88

1. Freshman
2. Sophomore
3. Junior
4. Senior

In which I ramble on about the first 8 chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I might be addicted to the webcam and iMovie on Shawn’s laptop. Good thing he’s easily distracted by video games!

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren … and I end up adding a ton of books to my wish list every week.

All my IMM posts can be found here!

Books & People mentioned:

From the Library

The Owl Keeper – Christine Brodien-Jones (review linked)
Time of the Witches – Anna Myers (review linked)
Thirteen Reasons Why – Jay Asher

For Review

To Kill a Mocking Bird – Harper Lee (Harper Collins)
The Bucolic Plague: From Drag Queen to Goat Farmer – Josh Kilmer Purcell (Harper Collins)
Beautiful Malice - Rebecca James (Penguin Group Canada)

Gifted

Bad Kitty Gets a Bath – Nick Bruel
Happy Birthday Bad Kitty – Nick Bruel
Bad Kitty – Nick Bruel (review linked)
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac – Gabrielle Zevin
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder – Julie Halpern
Get Well Soon – Julie Halpern
The Eyeball Collector - F. E. Higgins
The Bone Magician – F. H. Higgins
Perchance to Dream – Lisa Mantchev

Yan @ Books By Their Cover
Erica @ The Book Cellar X (does that X belong there?)
Kristi @ The Story Siren

The Girl Who Could Fly
by Victoria Forester

You just can’t keep a good girl down . . . unless you use the proper methods. Piper McCloud can fly. Just like that. Easy as pie. Sure, she hasn’t mastered reverse propulsion and her turns are kind of sloppy, but she’s real good at loop-the-loops. Problem is, the good folk of Lowland County are afraid of Piper. And her ma’s at her wit’s end. So it seems only fitting that she leave her parents’ farm to attend a top-secret, maximum-security school for kids with exceptional abilities. School is great at first with a bunch of new friends whose skills range from super-strength to super-genius. (Plus all the homemade apple pie she can eat!) But Piper is special, even among the special. And there are consequences. Consequences too dire to talk about. Too crazy to consider. And too dangerous to ignore. (goodreads.com)

This book was a gift from a friend who was pretty sure I would like it. I honestly wasn’t sure I would as I read the first pages. I almost put it down after the second chapter because I thought the book was going to be rather dull and I didn’t think I would like the characters.

Boy was I fooled.

Enter Dr. Letticia Hellion who runs I.N.S.A.N.E. (seriously). Once Piper is taken away from her parents and sent to this school of other strange powers, the book picks up a bit. And then it picks up A LOT and I couldn’t put it down and I was both horrified and fascinated and scared and touched all at once.

The book goes from boring, Little House on the Prairie beginnings to horrific underground testing on “different” creatures, plants, animals and humans.

For the love of gods people, I cried over the death of a CRICKET!

A cricket that was hardly the focus of the story and was sort of just… there. A slight mention once he’s discovered and another mention that Piper still had him. And yet the big scene with the cricket had me in tears. Flowing down my face and sniffly nose type of tears and I had to put the book down, compose myself and come to terms that I was crying over a bloody cricket! The scene was beautiful in a very emotional way.

I came to care a ton about the children who were being held at I.N.S.A.N.E. and horrified at the testing and experiments that were happening to the other creatures. I grieved for the lost of a “student” without even knowing her all that well, but her personality and brightness was so well conveyed that I felt the grief and shock of her leaving as much as the kids in the story must have.

I was horrified at the torture that was afflicted on the children, though it was never actually graphically depicted, the allusion to it was just as powerful.

I didn’t think there would be a happy ending at all once I was more than three quarters of the way through the book. I was surprised by the ending and finished the book with shaking hands and shaky breath.

This book was way more powerful than I thought it was ever going to be and it left me thinking of the book all day and night and even this morning. I am so very happy that I was gifted this book because the book, I think, is a wonderful gift to the literary world.

And all this for a middle grade book.

I’m not sure if I would have been able to handle this book when I was 10 or even 12. I think it’s something that a parent should read with their child if they have delicate constitutions like I did (and still do – ha!). There is death and torture but they are not gratuitous nor graphic. It’s more of an emotional roller coaster ride through the book, one that I am very happy I took.

This book isn’t quite dystopian, though the “school” gives off a strong dystopian vibe, though the rest of the world outside of the facility is just your average, every-day, run of the mill world. But I think the story might appeal to those who tend to enjoy the misery, fear and trapped feelings that dystopian books tend to have.

Time of the Witches
by Anna Myers

An orphan named Drucilla has finally has a place to call home with the Putnam family in Salem. Although her adopted mother is strange—haunted by a troubled past—Dru feels drawn to her as the mother she never had. When a new reverend and his family move into town with their servant Tituba, life takes a strange turn as young girls begin to fall ill and accusations of witchcraft begin to swirl. Reluctant to turn her back on the Putnams or her peers and overwhelmed by the power of groupthink among the other girls in town, Dru becomes one of the accusers herself. But when her best friend Gabe is accused, she must find a way to end the hysteria, or risk losing him forever. (goodreads.com)

This book has been sitting on (in?) my Amazon wishlist for over a year, but it seems like longer than that. Imagine my absolute thrill to find it at my local library! No store near me ever stocked it and I was actually waiting for a paperback version anyhow so this was a bonus!

What I was expecting: a paranormal witchy story.

What it actually is: historical fiction.

Was I disappointed? Nope. Not one bit. In fact the historical setting made the book all that much more terrifying knowing that these things actually happened and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

I was riveted by the writing in this book. I was caught up in the life of Drucilla and the delicate line she had to walk while living with her “adoptive” family. Mistress Putnam was obviously insane and a dangerous woman to cross. Drucilla had to lie to protect herself, the younger children and her long-time friend Gabe and after awhile it just became too much.

I have always been fascinated by witches and the Salem witch trials. I am no scholar in regards to these events because as much as they drawn my curiosity they have also repulsed me with the cruelty and mob mentality. How a town could possibly murder so many innocent people for their own amusement (it seems) is beyond me.

I know there were hangings and deaths in prison and drownings, but I think the one act that horrifies me the post was the death of Giles Corey who was pressed to death in a field as he would not admit to being a witch. Pressed to death. It started with a board on his chest and each day more weight would be added until he died never admitting to the accusations of witchcraft.

When I read this in the story and then the author’s note at the end which stated this was fact I could hardly breathe myself.

Most all characters in this book, with the exception of Drucilla and Gabe are real characters from the history books regarding the witch trials in 1692. The last page of the book lists the names of those who were hung and who died in prison and then Mr. Corey who was pressed to death.

I have never understood cruelty in the world. I have never understood people who would punish others, or hurt others just for being different. People were wrongly accused and arrested due to greed, jealously and fear of the different. It sickens me.

This book was superbly written and the story horrifyingly told with fact and fiction woven together intricately. I am so very happy my library had this on their shelves and if you like historical fiction (which, generally, I do not) and like stories about the Salem witch trials I would highly recommend it.

As a comparison, when I read The Merrybegot earlier this past spring it also chilled me with stories of the witch trials, however that story includes more of a fanciful telling of the story with references to magic and fae creatures. This one does not have the whimsical element that Julie Hearn’s story did, but it is just as gripping in its own way.