The Salem Witch Trials is a graphic novel about a historical event in the late 1600's in the early days of the colonization of New England. The novel tells of how some young ladies began having fits in which they verbally accused people in their communities of being witches. For some reason the authorities in this Puritan community took these young ladies seriously and tended not to believe the accused citizen's pleas of innocence. The sad result was than many of the accused people were jailed and/or hung for being witches, until public opinion put a stop to the practice.
The illustrations in this book are not like a regular picture book for young children. They are stern, passionate and grim. The dialog is fairly basic English, but not likely the same dialect as would have been used in the 1600's. The dialog is in call-outs, while there is a narrative in other boxes on each page. This book deals with prejudice, executions and lots of unreasonable behaviour on the part of this community. The story is an interesting way to introduce a historical event, and it may be more interesting to children that are interested in illustrations as much as they are interested in the printed story.
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