Witness

1. BIOGRAPHY
Hesse, Karen. 2001. WITNESS. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 0439271991

2. PLOT SUMMARY
This award winning book takes place in a small town in Vermont in 1924. The town is on the brink of being consumed by the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) and the fear they bring to the community. Many of the citizens choose to join the KKK but others elect to stay neutral. The KKK brings not only fear but they bring racial tension that generates danger and frightening times for all the citizens but especially for two young girls, one black and one Jewish. As the story unfolds the reader will hear eleven characters explain their choices and opinions and the consequences those decisions will elicit.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Hesse has chosen to introduce this book by creating an exhibit of portraits revealing the eleven characters that make up the cast of this story. At first glance, the reader might think this book is written as a play, but with closer examination it is a novel written in a five act series of free verse narrative poems. In each of these narratives, Hesse has chosen to write each verse without the use of capital letters and proper nouns which depicts the simple speech that is used by each character. As the story progresses and the characters voices unfold who they are, the reader will begin experiencing the emotions of hate, love, violence, peace and terror that these characters will convey. The dialect that Hesse uses is often brazen and harsh which unveils the reality and inhumanity of our past history. An example of this is the comment Merlin Van Tornhout expresses about Leanora Sutter; I left school right then
no amount of air will get the smell of her
out of my nose;
the soot of her out of my eyes.
Scattered throughout the story, there are historical references to people and events that help identify the time era. Which include the mentioning of the flapper which was a young woman who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair and showed inappropriate behavior in the 1920’s, Miriam Ferguson who was the 1st female governor of Texas, and the famous Leopold and Loeb kidnapping and murder of Bobby Franks and when Leonora told how she wrote a letter to Helen Keller.
Witness is a compelling story about an era in history that showed a lot of racism and how people dealt with it. The one thing that might hinder kids from reading this on their own is that I found myself referring back to the gallery of pictures in the front, to help me keep everyone straight which made for a little confusion. If students have to continue flipping back to the front they might get bored and put the book down.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Publisher’s Weekly: "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. (Mar.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Voice of Youth Advocate: “This lyric work is another fine achievement from one of young adult literature's best authors.”

School Library Journal: “Gr 6 Up-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.”

Kirkus Review: “What Copeland created with music, and Hopper created with paint, Hesse deftly and unerringly creates with words: the iconography of Americana, carefully researched, beautifully written, and profoundly honest.” (Fiction. 10-14)

5. CONNECTION
Activity: Divide in groups and have students read as a play. Give each person a character to be.
Once students have read Witness have them research the KKK and their ideas to help them understand what they are/were about and if they still exist and are they as strong now as they were then.

Other book to read:
Hesse, Karen. OUT OF THE DUST. ISBN 9780590371254