The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History - Hardcover

Yolen, Jane; Stemple, Heidi E. Y.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689846207 ISBN 13: 9780689846205

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004

Synopsis

In 1692, tragedy strikes Salem, Massachusetts.

When a group of girls came down with a horrible, mysterious bout of illness, the town doctor looked in his medical books but failed to find a reasonable diagnosis. Pretty soon everyone in town was saying the same thing: The girls were ill because they were under a spell, the spell of witchcraft! And still, the question remains: Why did the hysteria occur?

The townspeople had many things to worry about back then: smallpox, strife with local indigenous communities, a preacher demanding higher wages, and the division of land in the community. But did all of those problems justify a witch hunt?

Become a detective as you read this true story, study the clues, and try to understand the hysteria! The Unsolved Mystery from History series is written by acclaimed author Jane Yolen and former private investigator Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple. This is an innovative history lesson that’s sure to keep kids thinking.

About this title

About the Author:

Jane Yolen is an award-winning author who has written more than 380 books for children, including the bestseller How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? and the 1988 Caldecott Medal winner Owl Moon. She is known for her beautiful poetry, picture books, fairy tales, novels, and nonfiction, and has even been called “the Hans Christian Andersen of America” (Newsweek). She lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Visit her at JaneYolen.com.

Heidi Elizabet Yolen Stemple is Jane Yolen’s daughter and sometime writing partner. Together they wrote the Unsolved Mysteries from History series. Heidi lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts.

Roger Roth, Sr., has partnered with Dr. Hanby in his ministry and writing for many years. Together they oversee Mark Hanby Ministries/Fathers Heart Ministries, an internationally recognized teaching and resource center.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-6–Yolen and her daughter outline the basic events that gripped this community while boxed text, drawn to look like pages from an investigator's notebook, add context. Smaller sidebars define some of the terms used. The book concludes with a presentation of some of the extant theories of what caused the girls' hysteria and the reactions of the other townspeople, with questions for readers, based on the text, that may support or attack each theory. Roth's graphite-and-watercolor illustrations, done in somber tones, convey the bleakness of the Colonial winter and the drama of the unfolding events. There have been a number of books for this audience covering the Salem witch trials, Edward Dolan's (Benchmark, 2001), Tamra Orr's (Blackbirch, 2004), and Stephen Currie's (KidHaven, 2002), among them. While these titles cover the facts more completely and may be better suited for reports, the investigative approach used here gives a different perspective and encourages readers to evaluate the evidence and draw their own conclusions.–Elaine Fort Weischedel, Millbury Public Library, MA
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About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0689846207
• ISBN 13: 9780689846205
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Roth Roger