Witness

Title: Witness Author: Karen Hesse

Illustrator: N/A

F&P Level: V/W

Lexile: 

Interest Level: 5th - 8th

Genre: Historical Fiction

Identity Group: African American, Jewish

Themes: Racism, community, prejudice, perspectives

Summary Witness is the story of a small town in Vermont in 1924. With the revival of the popularity of the Ku Klux Klan, the community is torn apart by racism and violence. Events are narrated by several members of the population, mostly in first person. Leanora Sutter is a twelve-year-old girl who feels alienated as one of the town's few black residents, and experiences more bullying and violence as the Klan moves in. She is befriended by Esther Hirsh, a six-year-old Jewish girl who has little understanding of the poorly-hidden issues coming to the surface around her.

Merlin Van Tornhout is allured by the Klan's teachings, and ushered along by the town's clergyman, Johnny Reeves. Johnny Reeves becomes more and more caught up in the fervor of racism, and both men play a major part in the climax of the story.

Other members of the town, including the constable, and a newspaper editor, lend their voices to the telling of this story. Readers experience the story from different points of view, often with multiple perspectives for a single event.

Instructional Suggestions This story contains violent events and language. For young readers, a note to parents is advised. Witness fits well within a historical fiction unit, although it should be noted that there is an element of fantasy, as Johnny Reeves narrates a chapter after his death, and Merlin Van Tornhout seems to see his ghost.

A major strength of this story is Hesse's use of multiple perspectives to tell the story, giving students a look at the feeling of characters on all sides of the conflict. By presenting the thoughts of multiple inhabitants, Karen Hesse requires readers to come up with their own ideas about right and wrong, and exposes them to alternative narratives for both the victims and the persecutors of racism and violence. The different characters' voices also set up instruction on language use (for example, six-year-old Esther vs. 42-year-old Sara Chickering), and how authors choose language for a specific purpose.

Possible Common Core connections:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.3 Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.6 Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

Interdisciplinary Connections Social Studies: As with most historical fiction texts, Witness demands a level of understanding of historical context. While this can be accomplished as a shorter introduction to the novel, the whole story would fit well with a unit in which students learn about human rights and the treatment of African Americans after the end of slavery.

Witness also leads into a discussion of basic rights, and would be a good reference point to show how the individual rights of some groups are often valued over those of others.

Vocabulary

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