Aktion	Zweigstelle	Standorte	Status	Frist	Vorbestellungen
Vorbestellen	Zweigstelle: 02., Zirkusg. 3	Standorte: FS.E DR.J Rees Rees / Jugendregal	Status: Verfügbar	Frist:	Vorbestellungen: 0
Vorbestellen	Zweigstelle: 07., Urban-Loritz-Pl. 2a	Standorte: FS.E DR.JH Rees / College 1a - Fremdsprachen-Bibliothek	Status: Verfügbar	Frist:	Vorbestellungen: 0
Vorbestellen	Zweigstelle: 09., Alserbachstr. 11	Standorte: FS.E DR.J Rees	Status: Verfügbar	Frist:	Vorbestellungen: 0
Vorbestellen	Zweigstelle: 10., Haseng. 38	Standorte: FS.E DR.J Rees Rees	Status: Verfügbar	Frist:	Vorbestellungen: 0
Vorbestellen	Zweigstelle: 20., Leystr. 53	Standorte: FS.E J DR.JH Rees Rees	Status: Verfügbar	Frist:	Vorbestellungen: 0

Summary In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a journal of her voyage from England to the New World and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.Review 'Her absorbing and suspenseful story has a carefully constructed sense of time and place' Sunday Times 'Compelling and convincing Rees has become a major writer for teenage readers' Independent 'Cleverly constructed and written with both grace and urgency' Guardian Review 'I am Mary. I am a witch' is the frank beginning to a remarkable diary, the pages of which are found hidden within a New England colonial quilt. Its entries, beginning in March 1659, detail the survival of the writer and the craft she practised. Witness to the trial by floating and brutal hanging of her grandmother, Mary escapes among a party of Puritans setting sail for the New World. She must hide her knowledge and pretend complete obedience to their faith or face deadly exposure. Her beliefs are the survival of the old religion before Christ, spirituality rooted in nature and firmly grounded in herbalism. As the settlers head deep into the forest to found a new Jerusalem under their madly prophetic leadership, she finds friends and a sympathy in her beliefs amongst the Indians. However, as the isolation of winter fosters paranoia, Mary becomes a focus for dangerous suspiscions. This re-appraisal of the witch as a positive character rather than demon or innocent victim is refreshing in this spellbinding historical novel, as is the impressive evocation of puritan pioneer life. (Kirkus UK) Review After watching her grandmother hang for being a witch, Mary journeys to the New World only to discover that human nature's desire to blame another is not limited to 17th-century England. Unlike most stories about people accused of sorcery, Mary freely admits to her gift, one that offers pain with its limited power. Mary's intelligence and openness to the world around her, along with a distinct distrust of the omnipresent religious fervor provide the narrator with immense appeal. There's objectivity to the diary entries about her journey to Massachusetts among a group of Pilgrims and her hard work of settling in a new land. She freely enjoys the company of a young sailor, gets to know the native guides, and appreciates the healing powers of plants. Equally, she recognizes the frivolity and conceit of others in the party and the arrogance and selfishness of the leader who claims to speak for God. When trouble arises, whether in England or in the colonies, some are quick to blame the Devil and his spawn, the witch. Luckily, Mary finds some good people who cling to logic even amid their religious allegiance or who lack that mindset of blind devotion. This diary is eerily given fake credibility by a single-page prologue and an afterword that describe the provenance of the pages and call for further information from readers, an unnecessary gimmick. The tightrope that Mary walks as an outsider in her society is a dangerous one, and the suspense tightens as events unfold. The text is haunting despite a lack of antiquity in the language. Perhaps wisely, Rees forgoes emphasizing historical or theological accuracy and instead focuses on providing immediate characters. With its theme of religious intolerance and its touches of the supernatural, this is sure to be in high demand for a long time. "(Fiction. 11-14)" (Kirkus Reviews) Review Mary is a witch. The year is 1659 and her grandmother has been hanged. A mysterious stranger helps Mary escape from England on a ship full of emigrants to the New World. With her guardian, Martha, a 'healer', she arrives at Salem, Massachusetts - a theocracy itself to become famous for witch trials at the end of the century. The group moves on to another settlement, Beulah, where the work is hard and rules are strict. Mary meets Jaybird, a Native American, but she makes few other friends and becomes increasingly isolated from a community ill at ease with itself. Written in the form of a diary, this novel offers insight into the dubious position of the 'wise woman' in history. Sought after for her knowledge of herbs to cure the sick, she is nevertheless reviled for causing disease or for failing to effect a cure. Matters come to a head when Mary becomes the scapegoat for the other local girls, whose sickness is declared the result of witchcraft. Martha discovers Mary's diary and advises her to destroy it. Instead Mary hides her diary, page by page, sewn into the patchwork quilt she and Martha are making. Then as the hue and cry goes up for her arrest Mary quietly disappears into the woods. The diary form of this novel make it compelling reading and the first third of the book gives a vivid account of life on board ship, in cramped and squalid conditions below decks where even the air seems rationed. Here, too, Mary's past haunts her as the sailors, ever sensitive to the supernatural, feel the presence of spirits. This absorbing and well-written novel will be appreciated by 11-year-olds upwards. (Kirkus UK)Biography Celia Rees lives in Leamington Spa. She has written several other books for children and young adults and this is the first for Bloomsbury. Celia's recent TRUTH OR DARE published by Macmillan has been receiving fantastic reviews. Celia is a high profile writer who has found a new and exciting voice in this, her latest, book.