WICKED GIRLS, A NOVEL OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS by Stephanie Hemphill

Hemphill, Stephanie. 2010. Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Harper         Collins. ISBN 9780061853266

Stephanie Hemphill, whose verse novel, Your Own, Sylvia, depicted an accurate portrait of Sylvia Plath, has offered us a new verse novel.  This one depicts a year in history over 300 years ago with chilling similarities to behaviors today.  Based on the lives of the real teen girls that stirred suspicion in 1692, the drama reads like a mean-girl bullying spree too close for comfort. 

 Hemphill writes the story with over 300 titled free verse poems in the voices of the seven teenage girls based on historical individuals.  Each girl is named and her age given under each title.  On page 143 she includes a rhyming incantation called RANDOM/ Incantation of the Girls. Written in quatrains of AABA,  it adds variety to her free verse.  At the end of the story, Hemphill tells us about the real people the story is based on and what happened to them.  Additionally she relates how she came to write the story and her research discoveries. 

Being a seasoned and prize-winning poet, Hemphill’s verse flows easily, never forced, wielding the imagery and evoking the emotion expected from a poet of her caliber.  For example, her metaphor of a pot and lid on page 50 is one of my favorites.

From Who Knows What Is Brewing?

          Ann Putnam Jr., 12

“Well, Abigail and Betty

are all folk can talk about,"

Margaret says, and locks her eyes on me

as though she be wishing to stir my pot

and test what ingredients I hold.

I keep my lid closed.

In another poem on page 213, Mercy Lewis, 17, reveals her despair in new surroundings and loss of her beloved dog Wilson, from My New Home.

The room where I board is darker

than my old servant's quarters;

And without Wilson's two eyes as tapers

this chamber's black devours me.

This book would be a good choice for teens in making the American history of 1692 come alive.  Embedded in the story are characteristics of bullying and mob psychology.  You could pair this story with the contemporary story called Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher.  Perhaps brainstorming ideas about how to use teenage influence for positive movements such as "random acts of kindness" could inspire a poster contest to promote positive teen power.  Why not call it a Positive Power Poster Promotion!