Witness

I have just listened to my nine-year old read this book out loud to me. The book was difficult for her to read by herself, being unfamiliar with the concepts in the book and finding the free verse style unusual at first and she was prepared to give up on the book. This is why she ended up reading it out loud to me. With some orientation from an adult, she then found the book to be fascinating and she put a lot of thought into which of the characters 'made sense' and 'who acquired some sense as the story went on.' This book was probably her first real introduction to the concept of racism. As a parent, I did not know how bad things were going to get in the book, and thus did not know what I might be exposing her to. That is the other reason why I wanted to read it with her, to be able to support her in case there were very traumatic things in the book.The book proved to be interesting and the content was apppropriate for a nine year old to be exposed to. It was a time of parent-child sharing. It has provoked discussion and will cause us to further expolore these issues and even look up a bit more about some of the details. The 'free verse format' actually worked out very well as the book moved quickly and could be read in a few settings even by a nine year old. By reading it out loud there were lots of opportunities to learn about new words and practice pronunciation. I highly recommend this book.

Eleven "ordinary sensible hardheaded" Vermonters give eyewitness accounts of Ku Klux Klan activities in this edgy but affirming work by Newbery Award-winner Karen Hesse. The five-act novel opens in small-town northeast America in the time of Prohibition, Calvin Coolidge, and Clarence Darrow. The Klan arrives almost imperceptibly at first, when the town merely seems receptive to bigotry, but the nightriders quickly progress to threats and assaults. Leanora, a black 12-year-old, and Esther, a 6-year-old Jew, bear the brunt of hate, but the racism deeply affects the families, marriages, businesses, and romances of the white Protestant locals as well. A resident of Vermont, Hesse knows her territory: the Klan had thousands of supporters in this isolated rural state in the 1920s until its demise there in 1930. As historical fiction, "Witness" is a vital multicultural alternative to "To Kill a Mockingbird" for freshman discussions of racism in America. As drama, "Witness" can be adapted easily into a reader's theatre production. As poetry, it takes its cue from the village of multidimensional characters in Edgar Lee Masters's "Spoon River Anthology," written only ten years before the time of "Witness." While some conservative parents may object to the book's portrayal of Johnny Reeves, the KKK preacher, the real controversy will surface when students analyze how, in "Witness," racism also destroys the racists. This is a suspenseful, poignant read with very real characters and a high moral ground that should find a place on every teen's required reading list.

I usually find novels in verse pretentious at best and unreadable at worst. They never seem to work. I'm glad to say that Karen Hesse's WITNESS is an exception.The voices are distinct and interesting -- I especially like those of Esther Hirsch and the Pettibones. The "plot" is compelling and not at all predictable. The photographs at the front are a nice touch -- they really create the community and flesh out the voices.

In this book, Karen Hesse returns to the spare, poetic style of her beautifully written Out of the Dust. This book, set in a small Vermont town in 1924, is told from the point of view of eleven of its residents, including two memorable children, twelve-year-old Leonara Sutter, who is black, and six-year-old Esther Hirsh, who is Jewish. It is a time when hatred and persecution are commonplace all over the country, even in the idyllic New England countryside. Leonara and Esther have commited no crime but to be born different from their white Protestant neighbors, but in the eyes of the Ku Klax Klan, that is enough of a reason to target the Sutters and the Hirshes, and those that would befriend and defend them. This memorable, poetic, and powerful novel explores the nature of hatred, the horror of violence, the value of acceptance, and the beauty of life, all in just 161 short pages. I can't reccomend this book highly enough.