Witness

by Karen Hesse

Paperback, 2003

Status

Available

Call number

T F HES

Publication

Scholastic Paperbacks (2003), Paperback, 168 pages

Description

A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.

Media reviews

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices)
It is in that ability to affect...that hope can be found in this novel set against the backdrop of racism and complacence.
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Kirkus Reviews
In this stunning piece of little-known American history, Hesse (Stowaway, 2000, etc.) paints small-town Vermont on the brink of self-destruction circa 1924....What Copland created with music, and Hopper created with paint, Hesse deftly and unerringly creates with words: the iconography of
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Americana, carefully researched, beautifully written, and profoundly honest.
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Publishers Weekly
The author of Out of the Dust again turns language into music in her second quietly moving novel written entirely in verse....Easily read in one sitting, this lyrical novel powerfully records waves of change and offers insightful glimpses into the hearts of victims, their friends and their enemies.
Booklist
Using real events, Hesse tells a story of the Ku Klux Klan in a small town in Vermont in 1924 in the same clear free-verse as her Newbery winner, Out of the Dust...Hesse's spare writing leaves space for readers to imagine more about that time and about their own.
VOYA
This lyric work is another fine achievement from one of young adult literature's best authors.
School Library Journal
In this remarkable and powerful book, Hesse invites readers to bear witness to the Ku Klux Klan's activities in a small Vermont town in the 1920s. Using free verse as she did in Out of the Dust, the narrative here is expanded to encompass the voices of 11 townspeople, young and old, of various
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races and creeds....A thoughtful look at people and their capacity for love and hate.
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Barcode

1729

Language

User reviews

LibraryThing member bplma
It’s Vermont, 1924 and the Ku Klux Klan comes to a small town in Vermont and recruits. Written in verse and told in the voices of different people in the town, Witness tells the story of how the Klan affected a small Vermont town; an aimless 18 yr. old Melvin joins the KKK to feel he is a part of
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something bigger than himself; 12 yr. old Leonora Sutter, the only African American girl in town, watches as life slowly gets more frightening; Sara Chickering who cares for and loves 6 yr. old Ester Hirsch, a motherless Jewish girl, and has no use for the Klan at all. As the KKK begins to assert more power over the town, things begin to get dangerous for Esther and Leanora. After the Sutters are threatened and someone shoots at Mr. Hirsch, many people in the town come out against the Klan. This is a quiet story with a very positive message. I enjoyed it and found the telling of the tale from the points of view of different townsfolk to be very effective. 11/06
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LibraryThing member rgruberexcel
RGG: Equally wonderful as Out of the Dust. Black, Jewish young girls in a 1920's Vermont Town being infiltrated by the Ku Klux Klan.
LibraryThing member ERMSMediaCenter
A series of poems edpress the views of carious people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.
LibraryThing member justine87
Good book. I really liked how I was able to read from different peoples perspectives.
LibraryThing member dgrandits
Vignettes about life in a small Vermont town in 1924. Everyone struggles against the KKK, especially 12yo Leonora and 6yo Esther. Leonora is a young African American girl; Esther is Jewish.

The reader gets to see life through the eyes of many characters so that we can understand what they
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experience.

Leonora is struggling with establishing who she is but is constantly reminded that she is black. Some people won't associate with her but Esther seems to be blind to the fact that there is prejudice. She is "buried in all the whiteness" (27). Yet she seems to realize there is injustice in the world (story about the white, rich boy getting kidnapped, held for ransom but killed...it didn't matter that he was what he was, he still was killed - 35).

Esther is originally from NYC. She and her father move into a house with Sara Chickering, a 42yo farmer.

Johnny Reeves is a clergyman but seems to struggle with joining the KKK believing it might actually be the right thing to do.

Viola never married and the reader wonders why but on page 30, we find that she realized that her mother lived a loveless marriage. Her father worked, got served and went to bed. Her mother did all the housework and never got a rest. Viola is a renaissance woman of the 1920s.

Harry & Viola Pettibone are married. Harry thinks it's great that the KKK has arrived; Viola has other thoughts. The struggle tears them apart.
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LibraryThing member josier80
Karen Hesse is a master of historical fiction told through poetry and Witness does not disappoint. The Ku Klux Klan moves into a small Vermont town. I was especially drawn in by her use of multiple characters and their tone of voice to tell the story. It is definitely a sad one and Leonora, an
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Affrican-American girl and Esther, a Jewish-America provide an excellent chance for kids to understand what it might have been like to live in a time period when such racism really did exist and that the issues aren't all black and white.
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LibraryThing member jayde1599
Eleven people share their views of the arrival of the Ku Klux Klan to a small Vermont town in 1924. The times are dangerous, especially for 6 year old Esther Hirsh and 12 year old Lenora Sutter and their friends. For, Esther is Jewish and Lenora is black. The story is told in classic Hesse prose.
LibraryThing member bsafarik
Using a series of poems written in the voices of different Vermont townspeople in the 20s, Karen Hesse will have you experiencing the influx of the Ku Klux Klan as it infects the townspeople with their hate and insanity.

The voice she gives the characters in the book shows up the hatred, the love,
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and the humanity, in a way that few can do like Hesse. Excellent book.
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LibraryThing member cnolasco
Hesse, K. (2001). Witness. New York: Scholastic Press.

Witness is a historical fiction that deals with the Ku Klux Klan moving into a small Vermont town in 1924. Karen Hesse has written this novel in prose just like Out of the Dust, but unlike Out of the Dust this story is told through the eyes of
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eleven different townsfolk. The characters range from a six year-old Jewish girl to a forty-eight year old white newspaper editor. At the beginning of the novel Hesse has included real photos to attach an image to the characters names, which I found very interesting. When the klan begins to take hold of their small town some characters join, some are vehemently opposed, and some aren't sure what to think. Throughout the course of the novel the reader sees how the klan's actions affect the town from the various characters viewpoints. In the end, the readers sees how much pain and grief the hateful acts of discrimination cause.
As a historical fiction novel, this book could not be solely used to teach students about the 1920s. It could possibly be used at the end of a unit that has been studied to show different viewpoints, although I don't think I would use this book in my classroom only because it is too sparse. There isn't enough for students to get a real, full story where they can picture this 1920s world in their heads. One thing I did like about this book is Hesse included many strong female characters, so in this novel it is sort of HERstory. The female voices in the novel were much stronger than any of the male characters.
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LibraryThing member ranaemathias
Vermont; 1924- Witness is the story of a small town in the throes of Prohibition, racism and the infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan. Each character tells the story from their own perspective. Written in verse, this story is a bit hard to comprehend at first. As it goes on, you begin to understand the
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different characters as they give voice to the story through their fears, prejudices and thoughts. Central characters are Leanora, a young black girl, and Esther, a young Jewish girl. Both are being raised by their fathers (we are never quite sure what happens to their mothers). Both face racism and prejudice, brought on by the influence of the Ku Klux Klan. Minor characters voice their concerns about the Klan and what they stand for. Others wonder if they should join the Klan as they are just good, American men who protect their families from the evil in the world. Unfortunately, the "evil" is in the form of persons who are different from them: Jews, Blacks, other minorities. This is an interesting book; at times hard to understand, yet so poignant in its message of tolerance and hate. I would recommend this book for 8th grade and up due to the historical background required to understand the time period. I recommend listening to this as an audiobook. I had the opportunity to listen to it (for my first reading) and it made so much more sense to hear the different characters' voices tell the story. I think kids would benefit from this method as well. This will surely spark many discussions.
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LibraryThing member shelf-employed
Witness is a narrative of the KKK’s infiltration of a small Vermont town in 1924. It is written in free verse through the voices of eleven different residents. The verse is largely without capitalization or punctuation, using line breaks instead to separate thoughts. Through the largely
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first-person accounts, the character of each of the residents is revealed.

Esther, a six-year-old Jewish girl, and Leonora, a twelve-year-old African American girl tell much of the story. The voice of Leonora, an obvious target of the Klan is compelling. The reader senses her fear as she hides in a closet but finds no escape from the specter of a cross-burning. The speech patterns of Esther may be difficult for some readers to comprehend. Her unusual speech may be mistaken for simple-mindedness; however, it is more likely representative of a recent immigrant’s dialect, and is symbolic of her innocence. The voices of Harvey and Viola Pettibone, however, are the most intriguing. The Pettibone’s are middle-aged shop owners. Theirs is the only verse that contains back-and-forth dialogue as they debate the Klan’s value, effect, influence, and activities in the intimate dialogue of husband and wife.

Although Horn Book dismissed the protagonists as stereotypes (Hepperman 2001), the use of stereotypes is necessary to illustrate the myriad of opinions as the Klan’s influence extends throughout the town. Streaming, free-form verse unfolds the innermost thoughts of the characters, revealing the influences of fear, peer pressure, guilt, conviction, and uncertainty on their behavior.

Witness begins with a Carl Sandburg quote, followed by a Cast of Characters list, and the five acts of the book. Until the characters (including the doctor, preacher, newspaper editor, rumrunner, and others) are established, the Cast of Characters is a welcome reference. Aged photographic renderings of the fictional characters help the reader to distinguish them further.

Vermont is not the usual setting for tales of the KKK and the ugliness of racism and bigotry. Witness tells an ugly chapter of history from an unusual perspective that will intrigue readers. The tale is both disturbing and hopeful. Readers will find it believable and memorable.
Connections:
Readers who enjoy this book will also enjoy Hesse's Newbery Award winning title Out of the Dust.

The short verse entries and multiple voices, make Witness and excellent choice for reader's theater. Readers should be encouraged to delve into the characters and find the motivation for their behaviors.
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LibraryThing member Manyalisa
Witness is a story told in poem form about the Klu Klux Klan trying to infiltrate a small Vermon town in the 1930's. There are several witnesses to the events taking place. The Klan is connected to a murder in the city. This book helps readers to think about the injustices that can occur in the
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name of justice and democracy.
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LibraryThing member rpultusk
This novel-in-verse is narrated by a case of characters all living in a small Vermont town in 1924. One family is black, one family is Jewish, some people have just joined the KKK, one woman sells illegal alcohol, and all are affected by the social turmoil and changes happening in their small
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town.

While the narrative style is certainly unique and sometimes compelling, the author's verse is not strong enough to sustain both the complexity of the plot or the different voices of such a wide cast of characters. Also, the author abandons capitalization and punctuation in her verse for no apparent reason. It is difficult to keep track of all of the characters, their relationships to one another, and their attitudes toward the political and social tragedies that are occurring in their town.

As far as the plot is concerned, while Hesse attempts to develop rising action and a climax, both lack tension due to the weakness of the verse. The sparse verse does not produce the desired effect and as a result, the plot falls short.

Not recommended for school libraries.
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LibraryThing member CaitCastonguay
Witness is a moving story told by 11 characters. These characters live in Vermont and have different relationships with the Klu Klux Klan. This novel moves from character to character describing the events and fear of the actions done by the KKK. As you read along it is hard not to have a favorite
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character and want to read the events through that character's perspective. I loved this book because of the different perspectives of the story from characters that varied from 6 to 66 years old. The storyline also kept me curious of what would happen next. This could be a great mentor text for character studies or picking a time in history and placing yourself in that time. Being prepped with this book would spark ideas of what a different understanding characters have depending on what kind of family they were born into and their age during this time in history. The text level is for sixth grade readers who are on grade level reading or advanced. The text language is sometimes in an informal syntax structure which could make reading and understanding difficult.
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LibraryThing member Amcantrell
Witness is a very intriguing book that tells a story about encountering the Ku Klux Klan from the perspective of 11 town people. As the book progresses, the reader is able to learn more about each person's account of the KKK as they come to Vermont. The community of Vermont is a very white
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community with only two african american people and there is also one small Jewish family.

This book is primarily a middle school grade level (grades 6-8). This is a historical fiction book that is set in the 20th century and could be a very good read for a social studies project based around this time period. The structure of the text was very informal and could be hard for some students to follow along. Besides that, it was a very interesting book and I recommend it for kids in middle school.
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LibraryThing member kimbykunishige
This book was a great read, good for students to see an event from multiple perspectives. I really think this would be a great book for students to read if they are practicing empathizing with characters from a book. I have not read much literature from this time era, and for me it was extremely
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moving!
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LibraryThing member andestac
I enjoyed this book because of its honesty. Each character had their own voice and their own opinions. Not ever character had to be liked, but the thoughts and feelings they expressed came across very genuinely regardless. I liked the fact that the story came from multiple perspectives, although at
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times the amount of characters made it sometimes hard to follow. This is the story of how racism spread throughout a town. It discusses the influence of the KKK in the 20s. An African American and Jewish child are both targeted by the Klan. The story recounts different people's experiences of the same events that are taking place in their town. There are multiple ways I could see this book being used as a mentor text. The first would be a lesson on character development. Or we could also have a discussion about how to write using multiple perspectives. We would talk about how we need to have well-developed characters each with their own strong voices and opinions. I could also see this being used as a mentor text to introduce historical fiction writing. We could talk about the historical information we learned from the text and how the author may've done some research to find this information. For example, I did not know how strongly the Jewish community was targeted by the Klan during the 20s. This book can play multiple roles and overall I found it an intriguing book.
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LibraryThing member bridgetrwilson
And I thought Hesse could not improve upon Out of the Dust. I was wrong. Where te former only had one voice, Hesse gives Witness multiple voices to tell the story.
LibraryThing member BornBookish
It’s always disappointing when you read one book by an author and absolutely love it and then you read another by them and don’t like it. That is pretty much what happened here. I had just read Out of the Dust the night before and was expecting another great book but instead was very
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disappointed with what I found.

This is a work of historical fiction about a small town in 1924 and how it affects them when the Ku Klux Klan moves into town. Told in five “acts”, the story unfolds before us through the eyes of eleven different characters, each passage told from a different point-of-view. The cast of characters was just too large and hard to keep track of. There was a cast list in the front of the book with pictures of each character, which was nice but I got sick of flipping back and forth between pages every time I couldn’t remember who someone was. Needless to say this really hindered me from connecting with any of them.

Another thing I didn’t like about switching between such a large number of characters was that their ages ranged from six to sixty-six so one minute your in the head of a six year old with her innocent thoughts and the next minute your in the head of an adult who’s plotting to poison someone.

I apologize for the really negative review but this book just wasn’t for me. I am still planning to read more of Hesse’s work in hopes they will be more like my first experience with her writing, which was the polar opposite of this one.
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LibraryThing member hereandthere
My daughter Gavriella suggested this poetic novella of life in Vermont in 1924. Esther, a Jewish girl age 6, and Leanora, a "negro" girl, age 12, both from New York, confront prejudice and violence directed at them and their families as the Ku Klux Klan comes to a rural Vermont town. Set against an
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historically realistic background of prohibition era small time rum running, the Leopold and Loeb murder in faraway Chicago, the election of Calvin Coolidge, and the rise of the Klan in the 1920s, the poems that tell this story are remarkable for their attention to historical context. (The Klan in the 1920s wasn't just a southern phenomenon - its xenophobic racist nativism was widespread, including Vermont, and, as the book notes in passing, Oregon.)

The principal characters are helpfully laid out on the first page with pictures (photographs selected by the author to represent her characters) and descriptions that can be referred to as we read the story, solving what for me is always a pressing difficulty in any work of fiction - how to remember who is who?

The story itself is told through a series of interwoven page-long poems in the voices of different characters in the town. The feel of Vermont small town life is vivid. There are some unambiguously evil characters, and some undeniably good eggs, but the author also manages to portray people who exist in the nether region between good and evil, who might do the right thing for terrible reasons, or who may do the wrong thing and pay no price. Hesse manages to capture ethical murkiness as well as moments of stark moral clarity. The story is wrapped up with a picante twist that is just right, but which shall not be revealed here.

I have always loved the idea of epistolary novels, because of the time they give to each character to develop his or her thoughts, and the way in which they also inject multiple (albeit fictional) authorial voices into the telling of a story. In some ways the brevity of Hesse's poems even improves on the epistolary form (which I associate exclusively with letters and e-mails, but have never seen done with poems). Here, we have opportunity to watch the author summon worlds into existence through a very few well chosen words. In quick sketches the author captures whole personalities and a sense of place and history for each character. She then allows each of them to describe his or her shared reality from his or her own perspective, while moving the plot forward. It's a marvelous effect and a literary achievement. The plot of this book could be an outline for a much longer story, but it didn't need to be longer to convey its truth. Brevity is part of its beauty.

Needless to say, to receive such a fine reading recommendation from my 12 year old daughter only enhanced the pleasure I took in this young adult book. We had a very interesting discussion about how the author used language to portray the age of the 6 year old Esther. I think any adult, particularly if he or she is interested in the craft of writing and the sketching of characters through voice, would find this book to be heartfelt and fascinating.

And would every author, from this day forth, learn from Karen Hesse and please provide an illustrated list of characters at the beginning of every book? I would be forever grateful.
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LibraryThing member engpunk77
I imagine my students will find this hard to follow, which may explain why it's been "checked out" quite a few times and always returned unread. The kids are interested in a KKK story, but perhaps the lack of detailed violence bores them...most of the violence is implied (did the preacher sexually
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assault the girl?) I think it's one of those books that perhaps adults can understand a lot better than the audience for which it was intended. It takes a sophisticated reader to put all of the pieces together, but it's worth it to help a child figure out how to keep track of which character is which and to stick with it.

I'd recommend reading this novel with a child from start to finish (middle school years). Lends itself to important discussions about fear, power, secrecy, character motivations, history, and prejudice, not to mention this author's unique style.
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LibraryThing member BookConcierge
3.5***

Eleven residents of a small Vermont town in 1924 reveal what happens when the Ku Klux Klan moves in. Neighbors turn against one another and no one is safe, particularly two children: twelve-year-old Leonora, an African American girl, and six-year-old Esther, who is Jewish. The residents of
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the town bear witness to the events of 1924 in haunting free verse.

I’ve read several of Hesse’s works now, and am in awe of how much she can convey in so few words. Despite using free verse for the entire novel, she was able to give each resident a unique voice. I can easily distinguish the ringing oratory of the preacher, the quiet strength of the town’s doctor, the distress of young Leonora, the down-to-earth practicality of the shopkeeper’s wife, the outrage of the newspaper editor, the complacency of the town constable, the steadfastness of a farmer, the confusion of a teenager, or the bravado of a bootlegger.

Images are vivid if sparsely described – a burning cross whose unnatural light can find its way into the darkest closet, the sucking mud of a country road in spring, a field of dandelions fluttering in the breeze of a locomotive rumbling past, even a near riot when ladies vie for sale items.

As I think about the novel I am tempted to rate it higher, but the very stilted style and odd syntax Hesse uses for Esther’s narration just didn’t work for me. It is so off-putting, that I think some readers might quit because of it. I dropped a half-star as a result.
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LibraryThing member RalphLagana
This book has been described by reviewers as lyrical. It is and that detracted from the work for me. This would be a difficult book to match with a reader I feel. Younger kids might find it confusing and older readers can turn to other books to get the same experience of small town prejudice in the
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60s South. I liked Out of the Dust much better.
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LibraryThing member Salsabrarian
Narrated by assorted cast. In the tradition of readers' theater, 11 inhabitants of a small Vermont town in 1924 voice the perspectives and experiences when the Ku Klux Klan moves in. Characters include a black girl, a storeowner and his wife, a Jewish girl, the woman who has taken in the Jewish
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girl for the Fresh Air program, and a newspaper publisher. Some are against the Klan; others are sympathizers if not members.
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LibraryThing member mutantpudding
Beautifully written and nuanced book about racism 100 years ago in America, and so by design also about today in how the past effects us. Can be a little tricky with the multiple narrators but you'll get it.

Went with 5 stars because of how much of this book had stuck with me from when I read it
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years ago. I definitely have a better understanding of it now than I did then though.
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ISBN

0439272009 / 9780439272001

Other editions

Witness by Karen Hesse (Paperback)
Witness by Karen Hesse (Hardcover)
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