Father of Lies - Hardcover

Turner, Ann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061370851 ISBN 13: 9780061370854

Publisher: HarperTeen, 2011

Synopsis

Truth or Lies?

Lidda knew, with a clarity that was like a candle in a dark room, that all had changed; something was loosed in the village—Devil or not—and they would pay for it, every last man, woman, and child.

Fourteen-year-old Lidda has always known she was different. She longs to escape Salem Village and its stifling rules—to be free to dance, to sing, to live as she chooses. But when a plague of accusations descends on the village and witch fever erupts, L idda begins to realize that she feels and sees things that others can't, or won't. But how will she expose the truth without being hung as a witch herself?

Gripping and emotional, Ann Turner's retelling of the Salem witch trials captures one girl's brave soul-searching amidst a backdrop of fear and blame.

About this title

About the Author

Ann Turner is the author of many novels, picture books, and poetry collections for young children. Her novel A Hunter Comes Home was an ALA Notable Children's Book, and her first picture book, Dakota Dugout, received the same honor. Among her other books are Abe Lincoln Remembers, an NCSS/CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, and Through Moon and Stars and Night Skies, a Reading Rainbow selection. Ms. Turner lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, with her family.

From Booklist

Waking in the night, 14-year-old Lidda is alarmed when she first sees the handsome, silver-eyed creature leaning against her bedroom wall and finds that she can hear his voice in her head. Her initial fear gives way to longing as the sensuous, insinuating, mysterious spirit, called Lucian, comes and goes in her mind, congratulating her for being different from the other girls in seventeenth-century Salem. When accusations of witchcraft lead toward deadly consequences, Lidda realizes that some of the accusers are lying and fears that she will be a victim of her communitys dangerous madness. The first appended authors note discusses Liddas personal madness, bipolar illness, and a second separates history from fiction in the novel. Turner draws a powerful portrayal of Liddas troubled inner world without defining whether Lucian is real or imagined. Despite the well-researched and vividly imagined depiction of the setting, the novel and its heroine have a rather contemporary feel. A new story inspired by historical events in early America. Grades 7-9. --Carolyn Phelan

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0061370851
• ISBN 13: 9780061370854
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 247