Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. In a plain meetinghouse a woman stands before her judges. The accusers, girls and young women, are fervent and overexcited. The accused is a poor, unpopular woman who had her first child before she was married. As the trial proceeds the girls begin to wail, tear their clothing, and scream that the woman is hurting them. Some of them expose wounds to the horrified onlookers, holding out the pins that have stabbed them-pins that appeared as if by magic. Are they acting or are they really tormented by an unseen evil? Whatever the cause, the nightmare has begun: The witch trials will eventually claim twenty-five lives, shatter the community, and forever shape the American social conscience. Book jacket. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Aronson (Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado) dramatically and convincingly sets the stage for the now infamous 1692 Salem witch trials, then ably deconstructs much of the misinformation that has been perpetuated through popular theories and personalities (e.g., Tituba, etc.). Next, he reconstructs the series of trials through court records and other sources, and asks the audience to examine the material with a critical eye. In the process, he urges readers to put themselves in the place of others on the scene and consider the questions raised: Could this happen today? Why did it happen then? What motives drive people to single out others? The momentum begins with a celebrated case of witchcraft against the Goodwin children in 1688 Boston; Aronson documents incendiary factors in subsequent cases-including economic threats to established families and the hierarchy of Puritan society-that led girls to assert power as the accusers of alleged witches and to ignite massive hysteria. He also uses primary source documents and trial records to help tease out the facts of the highly charged court atmosphere, including the contortions of the accusers-which led many of the accused to enter into a devilish bargain, "Confess and be saved." Some of the wrongly accused, however, helped return the community to sanity with their acts of faith, including Mary Easty, who bravely accepted her own death sentence but urged that "no more innocent blood... be shed." Readers will be swept up in this complex mystery and may ultimately be surprised by some of the detective work involved in understanding history. Ages 12-up. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 9 Up-Aronson has produced a legitimate piece of original scholarship that is at the same time an interesting narrative. Examining the events in the Massachusetts of 1692, and immediately discounting much of what readers may already know about the trials, he answers some of the questions they will bring, but raises even more. In the brilliant introduction, the author actively encourages the rethinking of past notions of the events leading up to the accusations and hearings. He sets straight the issue of Tituba's ethnicity, the motives and means of Cotton Mather and his colleagues, and the societal contexts and compulsions of the accusers. These participants are introduced and preliminary events are related, all culminating in the hearings. At this point, some readers may get bogged down in respectable yet monotonous he-said-she-said, while others may feel the copious direct quotes from primary sources are just right. Writing with an unabashed political bent, Aronson draws intrepid parallels between Salem and post-September 11th society (as well as the 1960s), and alternately charming and shocking connections between the 400-year-old participants and classic folk- and fairy-tale characters. In the charge to form one's own deduction about what happened and why, this bold book cautions that while readers' interpretations will vary and are valid, conclusions may not even be possible.-Andrew Medlar, Chicago Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 9-up. Was it pagan faith or a trick gone bad? A devious teenager's power play or a rebellion against the strictures of a rigid religious community? Aronson shows off both his talent for historical interpretation and his facility as a nonfiction writer as he reconstructs events surrounding the witch trials of 1692. He isn't shy about injecting his own voice in the mix; he often speaks directly to readers, putting the history into a context that sharp teens can grasp and encouraging them to think about how the events connect to their lives and to contemporary culture and politics. To enrich and clarify the history, he quotes from an extraordinary, well-documented array of sources and recorded testimonies (of accused and accuser alike), producing a dense, wide-angle view of the tragedy that evaluates causative theories ranging from deceit and outright fraud to spoiled food that caused hallucinations. The subject will undoubtedly attract readers, but this is not for those in search of spoon-fed fact; rather, it's for teens who love to debate and to dig into what's between the pages of their history books. StephanieZvirin. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Note to the Reader	x
A Note About the Images in This Book	xiv
On Spelling, Word Usage, and Dates in This Book	xv
Introduction: Of Dark Forests and Midnight Thoughts	1
"The Queen of Hell"	3
Two Familiar Fairy Tales	7
Skittering Shadows	14
Belief or Fraud?	16
Prologue: Boston, 1688: The Possession of the Goodwin Children	21
Mather vs Glover	23
Of Meetinghouses and the Blood of Wolves: The Puritan Journey	25
Testing a Witch	31
Exploring the Invisible World	35
Lessons and Warnings	37
Chapter I Two Salem Families, 1641-1692	41
The Putnams and the Porters	43
The Theft	49
A Minister's Warnings	52
Chapter II Two Mysteries	55
The First Mystery	57
The Second Mystery	62
The Second Mystery Deepens	67
Chapter III The Mysteries End and the Hearings Begin	75
The Usual Suspects	77
Tituba's Confession	82
Chapter IV The Accuser: Ann Putnam Jr.	89
Biting, Pinching, and Choking	91
Of Tests and Wishes	96
Chapter V The One and the Many	103
Martha Corey	105
"Confess and Give Glory to God"	114
Chapter VI From Hearings to Trials	123
"Alas, Alas, Alas, Witchcraft"	125
To Hear and Decide	130
One Dead: Bridget Bishop	134
Chapter VII The Man in Black	141
Vengeful Ghosts	143
Two Men in Black	147
Chapter VIII "Choosing Death with a Quiet Conscience"	155
"If I Would Confess, I Should Have My Life"	157
A Confused Jury	163
"Till the Blood Was Ready to Come Out of Their Noses"	165
Chapter IX "That No More Innocent Blood Be Shed"	173
Mary Easty	175
"It Was All False"	181
"I Do Most Heartily, Fervently, and Humbly Beseech Pardon"	184
Chapter X "A Great Delusion of Satan"	189
Ann Putnam Jr. Speaks	191
Wheels Within Wheels	202
Epilogue: Explaining Salem	207
Fraud, Witches, Hysterics, Hallucinators	209
Appendix The Crucible, Witch-Hunt, and Religion: Crossing Points of Many Histories	221
Timeline of Milestones in Puritan History	229
Important Dates in Puritan History Before 1692	229
Chronology of Events in the Salem Witch Crisis	231
Notes and Comments	234

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.