The Witch of Blackbird Pond

A Newberry Award Winning Book!

Hannah Tupper? A witch? Hardly! She's just a quaker, an outcast of society. Outcast or not, I still visit her all the time. Secretly of course. My name is Kit. I moved to Connecticut from Barbados to live with Goodwife Wood and her family. I'm not accustomed to their harsh ways of life, or all of these courtship practices. I even helped with the village school although my "heathen ways" stirred things up. Still, I manage. At least until a mysterious illness strikes the town and causes the crazed townspeople to go on a witch-hunt. Life as I know it is about to go up in smoke!

Set in the 1600s, when the Puritan way of life reigned supreme, this piece of literature is an entertaining supplement to studies on early America. Students will identify with the plight of Kit and get a compassionate first-hand account of both the Puritan viewpoint, and the lives of those who forced to live outside of it.

Speare, Elizabeth. The witch of Blackbird Pond. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Black and White

A boy on a train?

Parents dressed head to toe in newspaper?



A burglar hiding in a herd of Holstein cows?

Southern Rail regrets any inconvenience this may cause you.

What could these four stories possibly have to do with each other? Read David McCaulay’s Black and White to find out!

A Caldecott Award Winning Book!

Black and White weaves together four different stories so that the events that occur in one story affect the events and outcomes of the other three. Why not use this book to introduce making a timeline of events? Or introduce ecosystems by making a concept map showing how one character (or organism) affects the others?

These are just some of the many ideas from Carol Hurst's Children Literature site. Check out her other lesson plans and units connecting popular childrens' books to the classroom! http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/blackandwhite.html.

Macaulay, D. (1990). Black and white. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.