Salem Witch Trials By: Ann Rinaldi

            The Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinadli was about a girl named Susanna English. Her motive is to join the inner circle of girls who meet every night at the reverend’s house. She would watch the girls and “peer through the naked trees and bushes, toward the house.” (7)  She would sit outside in the freezing cold just to see what the girls were doing. When the girls were inside she saw the girls “all warm and safe, sitting around the fire, listening to Tituba’s stories.” (7) Tituba was the reverend’s servant. Ann Putnam, the leader of the girls, wants to tell a lot of false accusations that will lead to the imprisonment of the innocent people in Salem.  Ann soon tells Susanna about her evil plan. Susanna once was so disgusted by what the girl did that she said, “If I had only known what they were about, truly I would have turned and run the other way!” (37)  This caused Susanna to believe in witches. This does not stop until her future husband meets a wrongly accused “witch.” She soon returns after fourteen years and she hears Ann Putnam apologizing to the innocent people who were imprisoned and hanged. The book is actually based on true events that happened during 1692.

            This book is based in 1692 during The Salem Witch Trials. This is a time where people accused of evil doings and being witches were imprisoned or even hanged. However, these so called “witches” were innocent of the crimes they were being punished for. In this time period most kids were not allowed to go to school, only church. Puritans were just some of the people who accused other people of being witches. In the Puritan era people went straight from childhood to adulthood. If people in the puritan era were caught with any type of toy or doll they were accused of forbidden acts. This caused a very chaotic society.  
            The author of this book is Ann Rinaldi. Ann is a former newspaper columnist and is best known for her prize-winning historical fiction for young people. Ann and her family have spent the Bicentennial years traveling the country and reenacting Revolutionary War battles. Since she had “lived” the war she decided to write about it.