The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare

I found this book on the Library Sale shelves and it seemed familiar - I felt like I'd either read it a long time ago and didn't really remember it, or that I'd heard of it from some award list somewhere (it actually won the Newberry Medal in 1959) and I should read it, etc. In any case, for 50 cents, how bad could it be? In addition, I am a sucker for certain types of period cover art, and this particular paperback was published in 1971 and I liked the cover (an example of my cover is shown below in a blog first - assuming I can make this work).

Woo hoo, it works! Cool!

Overall this was an entertaining book, but I found the 1971-era description of the story printed on the back cover to be a little more melodramatic and overdone compared to the contents. However, this is typical of that time period and did not dampen my enjoyment of the story or of the book. It was a perfect read for this morning while waiting for the electricity to come back on after Hurricane Irene passed by here last night and blew it off, apparently. The book did, however, add another nail into the coffin of my opinion of the Puritans, whom I think are some of the most humorless and pitiable people ever to exist on this planet. It must have been truly awful to have encountered some of these people back then, when any small misfortune, no matter how petty, was blamed on "witchcraft," no one was allowed to have anything reasonably nice, or to have any fun - what a sad way to live. It did make the main character very sympathetic, however, and it's an entertaining story. Recommended.