Witness by Karen Hesse

Hesse, Karen. Witness. New York: Scholastic, 2001.

Summary

In the year 1924, Hesse uses a series of poems written in free verse to discuss the views of eleven people. They are located in a small Vermont town, that includes a young black and Jewish girl, which the Ku Klux Klan steadily infiltrates into the community.

Personal Opinions/Reactions

Starting the book off with pictures of all eleven characters allows readers to begin to attach to each one in one way or another. Karen Hesse, Newbery Medal winner, adds a memorable voice to each one that relates to Ku Klux Klan in some way. As several members embrace the Klan like Constable Johnson and retailer Pettibone, others will see the trouble coming in. With the book written in the voice of each character, the audience will be able to gain love for some while hating others. Readers will be flipping pages to see the impact of the Klan during this time period. When reading this I could not help but feel like I was right there in the middle of this ordeal wanting to reach out to Leonora and Esther as they are slowly being harassed. In the end it is great to see a community come together and protect it's own as they run the Klan out of their town.

I would recommend this book to ages nine and up. I also think this would be an exceptional book to use in a classroom study of this time period.

Reviews

Amazon.com: “The free verse format and distinct characterizations also make Witness a perfect choice for library or classroom reader's theater productions.”

From Publishers Weekly: “The author of Out of the Dust again turns language into music in her second quietly moving novel written entirely in verse. Here, 11 narrative voices chronicle actual events occurring in a sleepy Vermont town after the arrival of the Ku Klux Klan in 1924.”

Booklist: Add this to the Holocaust curriculum, not because every racial incident means genocide, but because the book will spark discussion about how such a thing can happen even now.