A Break with Charity: A Story about the Salem Witch Trials

by Ann Rinaldi

Book Overview

Susanna desperately wants to join the circle of girls who meet every week at the parsonage. What she doesn't realize is that the girls are about to set off a torrent of false accusations leading to the imprisonment and execution of countless innocent people. Susanna faces a painful choice. Should she keep quiet and let the witch-hunt panic continue, or should she "break charity" with the group--and risk having her own family members named as witches?
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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0152046828
• ISBN13: 9780152046828
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.6" x 7.0"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Very Informative and Absorbing

"A Break With Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials" is about lonliness in the face of a terrible evil. Also, it is about the courage and determination of one young girl to rise above it all and to stand up for the truth, even if she has to go it alone. Susanna English is a young teenage girl who knows from the onset the truth behind the circle of girls who are acting as though the devil is possessing them in order to accuse people they don't like of witchcraft. Susanna wants to speak out and tell someone that the girls are dissembling (the leader of the group and a slave woman disclose this information to her). She ives in constant fear as innocent people are being hanged that her family will be accused of witchcraft. Eventually, her parents are cried out upon. As they flee, she remains behind out of guilt. To find out what happens to Susanna and her brave family read "A Break with Charity." This book gave a very clear and accurate portrayal of the Salem Witch Trials. I honestly found no negative complaints about the book. I would give this book a 5.

Ann Rinaldi at her best

I consider "A Break with Charity" to be Ann Rinaldi at her best. She provides an insider's depiction of the Witch Trials using the perspective of a fourteen year old living in Salem, MA. The facts and characters are well-researched. Although the main character, Susanna English, is fictitious, she is a believable and sympathetic character. I heard alot about the witch trials as I grew up outside of Boston and was surprised to learn so much from Rinaldi's attentive detail. This book is intended for young adults and I, as a not so young adult, thoroughly enjoyed every word....it is a page turner that evokes many emotions.

WOW

This book was awesome. "Who will they call on next?" is the one question that ran through my mind as I read. Susannah English wanted to join the girls, and listen to the stories and fortune-telling that goes on in the Paris household. Later on, when those girls pretend to be afflicted and cursed, names are called out, those names, are those of "witches." If you read this, you'll learn how Susannah and other Salem villagers survived through the Salem Witch Trials, and how it ended! Fascinating topic Ann, you really got me hooked! READ THIS BOOK!

A MUST READ

This is definetely one of the best books I have ever read. If you like reading historical fiction you will love this. The book is about a girl living in Salem during the Salem witch trials. She learns that the girls in the circle are lying. She wants to tell that they are lying but is being blackmailed. This is an awesome book.

A Break With Charity

In my opinion this book makes you feel as if you are really there while all these trials are going on. Ann Rinaldi made me actually enjoy reading about history. Now I realise how difficult it was to live back then, how anything you do could make people suspect you as a witch. When reading this book I felt how most people did about the way people were dying and been noticed as a witch. I feel that the actions of the girls were just to protect them selves. Another book I suggest reading is A Wolf By Ears because you get the same feeling of devestation.