About this item
Tackling the same twisted subject as Stacy Schiff's much-lauded book The Witches: Salem, 1692, this Sibert Honor book for young readers features unique scratchboard illustrations, chilling primary source material, and powerful narrative to tell the true tale. In the little colonial town of Salem Village, Massachusetts, two girls began to twitch, mumble, and contort their bodies into strange shapes. The doctor tried every remedy, but nothing cured the young Puritans. He grimly announced the dire diagnosis: the girls were bewitched! And then the accusations began. The riveting, true story of the victims, accused witches, crooked officials, and mass hysteria that turned a mysterious illness affecting two children into a witch hunt that took over a dozen people's lives and ruined hundreds more unfolds in chilling, novelistic detail - complete with stylized black-white-and-red scratchboard illustrations of young girls having wild fits in the courtroom, witches flying overhead, and the Devil and his servants terrorizing the Puritans - in this young adult book by award-winning author and illustrator Rosalyn Schanzer. Taught in middle and high schools around the U.S., the 17th-century saga remains hauntingly resonant as people struggle even today with the urgent need to find someone to blame for their misfortunes. Witches! has been honored with many prestigious awards, including:. Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor Book 2012 Notable Children's Books - ALSC NCSS - Notable Social Studies Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2012 School Library Journal Best Books of 2011 SLJ's 100 Magnificent Children's Books of 2011 Chicago Public Library Best of the Best 2011
About the Author
Author/Illustrator Rosalyn Schanzer's book Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem (National Geographic) is the winner of the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators for Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2011 and has also received a 2012 Robert F. Sibert Honor Award as one of the year's 5 most distinguished informational books for children. Other awards for this book include:
Starred Review from School Library Journal
SLJ Best Book of the Year
NY Public Library's 25 best Nonfiction Titles of 2011
New York Times Best Books of 2011
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book
Fuse #8 list of 100 Magnificent Children's Books of 2011
Kid Lit Frenzy top 5 Middle Grade Picks of 2011
Schanzer has written and illustrated 16 award-winning books for young people. A world traveler, nationally ranked Masters swimmer, avid photographer, and chocolate connoisseur, she lives in Fairfax Station Virginia with her husband in a house surrounded by birds. You can visit her website at www.rosalynschanzer.com
