Wicked Girls

Written by: Stephanie Hamphill

Published by: Puffin Books, 1986

ISBN 978-0-06-185328-9

Plot Summary: Wicked Girls, set in the 1600’s, follows the stories of six young ladies during the Salem Witch Trials. Throughout the story, Mercy, Margaret, Ann, Betty, Abigail, Elizabeth and Susannah all become “afflicted,” and accuse many citizens of the town of Salem of witchcraft. When the pressure becomes too much, the girls turn against each other and stop their antics, but only after many are hanged for supposedly signing the Devil’s book.

Critical Analysis: This historical book, although not completely accurate, is a powerful story for young adults. The book is told from the points of view of the young, “afflicted,” girls who were accusers during the Salem Witch Trails. Wicked Girls is written in continuous verse, and the imagery, although raw at times, is fantastic and emotional. A small excerpt from the story describes the execution of a supposed wizard, “They noose the last witch,/Samuel Wardwell:/a man I do not know,/have never seen./He opens his mouth/to proclaim his innocence,/but the executioner’s pipe smoke/chokes him and clogs his last words./The crowd rumbles and storms.” While reading these disturbing words, the reader can surely grasp the emotion and intensity of the crowd and the accuser. The book is told in chapters, each written from the point of view of one of the seven young accusers. The language of the poem is true to its time, using words such as proctor, goodman, meetinghouse, and goody. A section at the beginning of the book explains the roles of each accuser in the story. At the end of the book, the author provides a section that teaches the reader about the characters in the story and their true roles in the Salem Witch Trials. The author also provides a short list of resources used while writing the book. This is a great section for curious readers yearning for more information about the Salem Witch Trials. This story, full of friendship, betrayal, romance, drama, and jealousy, is sure to please the young adult crowd.

Awards and Reviews:

School Library Journal: Gr 9 Up–Wicked Girls weaves a fresh interpretation of the events put forth in Arthur Miller's The Crucible and revisited more recently by Katherine Howe in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Voice, 2009). Mercy Lewis, Ann Putnam, and Mary Walcott (in this story, called “Margaret”) point their fingers, lift their eyes, and cry “witch” once again. Elderly Goody Nurse appears, Mary Warren (here called “Ruth”) recants her accusations, John Proctor is accused and hanged, and Giles Corey is pressed to death. The verse format is fresh and engaging, distilling the actions of the seven accusing girls into riveting narrative. In Hemphill's village of Salem, Mercy Lewis (age 17) and Ann Putnam, Jr. (age 12) vie for control of the group of girls who quickly become swept up by their celebrity. Their accusations become self-serving: the merest look or shudder from one of the “afflicted” means the offender (an inattentive lover; someone who has done a parent wrong) risks being branded a witch or wizard. Eventually, the group fractures and the girls turn on each other, leading to cruelty and death. In the author's note, Hemphill outlines the historical background, with source notes for further reading. As in Your Own, Sylvia (Knopf, 2007), she bases her book in fact, but acknowledges that “certain names and accounts have been changed, amended and altered” in the construction of her novel. Teens may need some encouragement to pick up this book, but it deserves a place in most high school collections

Booklist: Hemphill follows her Printz Honor Book Your Own, Sylvia (2007) with another bold verse novel based on historical figures. Here, her voices belong to the “afflicted” girls of Salem, whose accusations of witchcraft led to the hangings of 19 townspeople in 1692. Once again, Hemphill's raw, intimate poetry probes behind the abstract facts and creates characters that pulse with complex emotion. According to an appended author's note, unresolved theories about the causes of the girls' behavior range from bread-mold-induced hallucinations to bird flu. In Hemphill's story, the girls fake their afflictions, and the book's great strength lies in its masterful unveiling of the girls' wholly believable motivations: romantic jealousy; boredom; a yearning for friendship, affection, and attention; and most of all, empowerment in a highly constricting and stratified society that left few opportunities for women. Layering the girls' voices in interspersed, lyrical poems that slowly build the psychological drama, Hemphill requires patience from her readers. What emerge are richly developed portraits of Puritanical mean girls, and teens will easily recognize the contemporary parallels in the authentic clique dynamics. An excellent supplementary choice for curricular studies of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, this will also find readers outside the classroom, who will savor the accessible, unsettling, piercing lines that connect past and present with timeless conflicts and truths. Grades 7-12.

Connections: This book leads wonderfully into a study of the Salem Witch Trials. It would pair well with other fiction books is verse, other books concerning the Salem Witch Trails, or books depicting the abundant tragedies in the history of the United States. Try challenging students to write a poetic piece from the a protagonist’s point of view.

Related Titles:

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin Cassics, 2003.

Rees, Celia. Witch Child. Somerville: Candlewick, 2002.

Rinaldi, Ann. A Break with Charity. Santa Ana: Graphia, 2003.