LS 5603 LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

Review of WITNESS:

A. Hesse, Karen. WITNESS. New York: Scholastic, 2001.

B. PLOT SUMMARY: Newbery Award winner Hesse explores small town life in a Vermont village in 1924. The tale is based on a true story and contains old black and white photos of all twelve characters. Hesse explores the day to day and the terrifying. She writes of the bond between an African American girl, Leanora Sutter age 12 and Esther Hirsch, a Jewish girl of 6 who have both lost their mothers early in life. From moonshine to the Ku Klux Klan Hesse does a notable job in bringing this painfully realistic story to life.

C. LITERARY MERIT AND CULTURAL MARKERS:
The story is related through a five act play written in verse. The typesetting is small, sparse and only printed in lower case letters. The poetry is a narrative told back and forth between members of the rural community. Poem pages have one to five verses on each page and resonate like natural speech. The book is the winner of a Christopher Award. The tale is both compelling and sickening but something that adults and children must investigate to help keep similar atrocities from happening again. Hesse’s stepbrother was a parent at my elementary media center so I know she is a Jewish American. She strives to tell the tale, however, in a dispassionate voice without sentimentality or judgement of the situation, leaving the reader to access and follow the situation in their own way. This adds much credibility to the story and illustrates the innate dignity that Hesse believes is everyone’s due in fiction and in real life. The book is a grand accomplishment on a multitude of levels. Many people today, even in the rural south and probably in rural Vermont too have had no first hand experience of burning crosses and the KKK. Told in a low key, droll manner it makes the text even more effective. Very unusual. Very moving. Very insightful peck into human nature with no characters portrayed as 100% good or 100% evil.
This is a book I will read more than once.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS:

VOYA weighs in:
Using poetic form with no capitalization allows Hesse to crystallize the voices of her eleven characters. Each speaks from his or her personal experiences of fears and prejudices. This lyric work is another fine achievement from one of young adult literature's best authors. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P M J (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal

PUBLISHER WEEKLY suggests:
"Hesse weaves together 11 distinct narrative voices to create a moving account of the Ku Klux Klan's encroachment on a small Vermont town in 1924. Told completely in verse, her quietly powerful novel addresses the inevitable loss of innocence that accompanies the fight for social justice." Ages 9-12.


SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL comments:
The presentation concludes with a fascinating interview between historian and critic Leonard Marcus and Karen Hesse in which she discusses her work and how she came to write her latest novel in verse

REVIEWS ACCESSED FROM:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780439272001&itm=2

CONNECTIONS:

There has never been a better Karen Hesse book to me than LETTER’S FROM RIVKA which also explorers the theme of being Jewish and becoming a Jewish American citizen. The book is also reminiscent of SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY. Elie Weisel’s historical fiction would be a very good follow up as well as a Mildred Taylor selection.