Here, There Be Witches: The Salem Witch Trials in Children’s Literature
This past summer, for the first time I took a short trip to a place that has always fascinated me: Salem, Massachusetts. It’s hard to imagine that, in this quiet New England town in the late 1600’s, over 200 people were accused of being witches and 19 were executed. The Salem Witch Trials became such a stain on this small town’s history that for decades the town tried to sweep its history under the rug, unwilling to confront its past. More recently, in the 20th century, interest in Salem and the witch trials has skyrocketed (in part due to the popular television series, Bewitched, and movies such as Hocus Pocus; as well as burgeoning academic studies spurred by the women’s movement in the late 60s and early 70s). The fascination with Salem and witches doesn’t seem to be slowing down either. With an even greater interest in all things Halloween, over half a million tourists flock to Salem every October to experience all the spooky things it has to offer.
Although Salem has recently become a popular tourist destination, stories of the Salem witch trials have been present in literature for over a century. Of course, author Nathaniel Hawthorne and works such as The Crucible may come immediately to mind, but the tales and mythos surrounding the trials have seeped into children’s and teen literature over the years as well. Below you’ll find a sample of fiction for young readers that have been inspired by the Salem Witch Trials:
Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials by Stephanie Hemphill
Witch Child by Celia Rees
How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather
A Break with Charity: A Story about the Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinaldi
These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling
Conversion by Katherine Howe
Although Salem has recently become a popular tourist destination, stories of the Salem witch trials have been present in literature for over a century. Of course, author Nathaniel Hawthorne and works such as The Crucible may come immediately to mind, but the tales and mythos surrounding the trials have seeped into children’s and teen literature over the years as well. Below you’ll find a sample of fiction for young readers that have been inspired by the Salem Witch Trials:
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Kit Tyler must leave behind shimmering Caribbean islands to join the stern Puritan community of her relatives. She soon feels caged, until she meets the old woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond. But when their friendship is discovered, Kit herself is accused of witchcraft!
A fictionalized account in verse of the Salem witch trials, told from the perspective of three young women living in Salem in 1692--Mercy Lewis, Margaret Walcott, and Ann Putnam, Jr.
In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a journal of her voyage from England to the New World and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.
Follows fifteen-year-old Samantha Mather, who has moved to Salem with her stepmother 300 years after her family hanged witches there. She is ostracized by the witch descendants at school as she unravels the lost secrets of the hangings and her family.
While waiting for a church meeting in 1706, Susanna English, daughter of a wealthy Salem merchant, recalls the malice, fear, and accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692.
When evidence of dark magic begins to appear all over Salem, Massachusetts, Elemental Witch Hannah and her ex-girlfriend Veronica are forced to team up to stop the deadly attacks.
When girls start experiencing strange tics and other mysterious symptoms at Colleen's high school, her small town of Danvers, Massachusetts, falls victim to rumors that lead to full-blown panic. Only Colleen connects their fate to Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago.
- Melissa Nemitz, West Windsor Branch
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