The Salem Witch Trials Written with Jane Yolen Illustrated by Roger Roth Simon & Schuster 2003 ISBN#0-689-84620-7 S&S hardcover

What great fun the 4th book in this series was to research. First, I brought my two daughters and my best friend Jen and her kids (Kaitlin, Mollie, and Sean who was only 2 at the time so he probably doesn't remember) from South Carolina where I lived all the way up to Salem, MA. The trip was for fun (to visit my parents during the kids' summer break, but we packed a research trip into it as well. This book--if you look in the front, is dedicated to the girls from that trip. Books about Salem were difficult to find in Myrtle Beach, SC, so I bought lots at the stores there in Salem. Then I preceded to read lots of very cool stuff about a very sad part of our history.

I was doing the research back in South Carolina on the morning of September 11, 2001 when that same friend Jen called me from work--I should go turn on the TV. I did. Religious zealotism is not new to this world. Not even close. Writing this book for children became a bit more serious then. My mother always told me that if we do not learn from our past, than we are doomed to repeat it.

This is not to say that The Salem Witch Trials is a depressing or serious book. I find the subject matter fascinating. I am absolutely in love with the picture of all the flying witches being spun out of a tale.

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