Wicked Girls

Wicked Girls

Hemphill, S. (2010). Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trails. New York: HarperCollins. 978-0-06-185328-9.

            Set in Salem in January of 1692, Wicked Girls tells the story of teenage girls during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. Although Hemphill uses some reality as a base, the book is fiction and is Hemphill’s version of the girl's stories. At the end of the book, Hemphill explains her decision for writing the book. She tells how she was intrigued by the teen girls and wanted to learn more.

            Hemphill pulls readers in from the start. Her free verse poem titled Salem (p 1) depicts the gloominess of the time. From the cold, gray clouds, to the bare branches of the trees that pointed nowhere, Hemphill’s imagery sets the tone perfectly. Hemphill’s strong use of language continues to paint images in the readers mind throughout the book, like through her use of similes and metaphors. Hemphill describes one of the nine executions through the eyes of Mercy (17), “Her body convulses like shocks/ of lightening flaring the sky.” Hemphill’s rhythm also helps the words to flow effortlessly off the page, keeping the reader engaged, like with the line “his gritty tongue/ swabs my chin/ like a wet woolen stocking” (p 2). Through Hemphill's strong imagery, similes and metaphors, readers will feel as if they are in 1692, right along with the girls. Older teenage readers will enjoy this book from start to end. 

Reviews:

In the Puritan world, only slaves and servants had less authority than young, unmarried women, until the day a small group of them cried, "Witch!" Here Hemphill (Printz Honor winner of Your Own, Sylvia) offers her take, in verse, on the key figures and events of the Salem Witch Trials. Avoiding such modern explanations as mass hysteria and ergot poisoning, she instead examines the mean-girl motives of each accuser-one is in love, one wants to please her mother, and one just wants to fit in. When their quest for power results in the deaths of once-respected villagers, the girls begin to turn on one another, and the book becomes impossible to put down. Concluding historical notes tell what happened to the young ladies' real-life counterparts. Angelina Benedetti, "13 Going on 30", Booksmack! 10/21/10

Library Journal - BookSmack!

Gr 9 Up—Wicked Girls weaves a fresh interpretation of the events put forth in Arthur Miller's The Crucible and revisited more recently by Katherine Howe in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Voice, 2009). Mercy Lewis, Ann Putnam, and Mary Walcott (in this story, called "Margaret") point their fingers, lift their eyes, and cry "witch" once again. Elderly Goody Nurse appears, Mary Warren (here called "Ruth") recants her accusations, John Proctor is accused and hanged, and Giles Corey is pressed to death. The verse format is fresh and engaging, distilling the actions of the seven accusing girls into riveting narrative. In Hemphill's village of Salem, Mercy Lewis (age 17) and Ann Putnam, Jr. (age 12) vie for control of the group of girls who quickly become swept up by their celebrity. Their accusations become self-serving: the merest look or shudder from one of the "afflicted" means the offender (an inattentive lover; someone who has done a parent wrong) risks being branded a witch or wizard. Eventually, the group fractures and the girls turn on each other, leading to cruelty and death. In the author's note, Hemphill outlines the historical background, with source notes for further reading. As in Your Own, Sylvia (Knopf, 2007), she bases her book in fact, but acknowledges that "certain names and accounts have been changed, amended and altered" in the construction of her novel. Teens may need some encouragement to pick up this book, but it deserves a place in most high school collections.—Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

School Library Journal

Hemphill follows her Printz Honor Book Your Own, Sylvia (2007) with another bold verse novel based on historical figures. Here, her voices belong to the “afflicted” girls of Salem, whose accusations of witchcraft led to the hangings of 19 townspeople in 1692. Once again, Hemphill's raw, intimate poetry probes behind the abstract facts and creates characters that pulse with complex emotion. According to an appended author's note, unresolved theories about the causes of the girls' behavior range from bread-mold-induced hallucinations to bird flu. In Hemphill's story, the girls fake their afflictions, and the book's great strength lies in its masterful unveiling of the girls' wholly believable motivations: romantic jealousy; boredom; a yearning for friendship, affection, and attention; and most of all, empowerment in a highly constricting and stratified society that left few opportunities for women. Layering the girls' voices in interspersed, lyrical poems that slowly build the psychological drama, Hemphill requires patience from her readers. What emerge are richly developed portraits of Puritanical mean girls, and teens will easily recognize the contemporary parallels in the authentic clique dynamics. An excellent supplementary choice for curricular studies of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, this will also find readers outside the classroom, who will savor the accessible, unsettling, piercing lines that connect past and present with timeless conflicts and truths. Grades 7-12. --Gillian Engberg

From Booklist Starred Review

“An atmospheric tale.” (Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books )

“In subtle, spare first-person free-verse poems, the author skillfully demonstrates how ordinary people may come to commit monstrous acts. Haunting and still frighteningly relevant.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“An excellent supplementary choice for curricular studies of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, this will also find readers outside the classroom, who will savor the accessible, unsettling, piercing lines that connect past and present with timeless conflict and truths.”
Booklist (starred review)

“The expressive writing, masterful tension, and parallels to modern group dynamics create a powerful and relevant page-turner. ”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The verse format is fresh and engaging, distilling the actions of the seven accusing girls into riveting narrative.”
School Library Journal (starred review)

Connections:

Teaching Guide:

http://files.harpercollins.com/PDF/ReadingGuides/0061853283.pdf