The Witch of Blackbird Pond is the simple story of Kit, a wealthy girl from Barbados whose last family member on the island dies. She stows away on a ship to Connecticut to find her mother's sister, and encounters a way of life that is completely foreign to her.
This was one of my very favorite books as a kid, and I'm quite certain I read it ten-plus times. I was a little hesitant to reread it as an adult, for fear that some of its magic would now be lost on me. Instead, it felt like having lunch with an old friend.
I LOVE Kit Tyler. She was my hero as a girl, and she's my hero now. It's interesting to think about what little me must have seen in her. She's brave. She's generous. She's headstrong, but she knows when to call it quits. She's loyal, practical, and hard-working. She's stubborn and a little bit arrogant. She hates the snow, and because of her, I still have an unfulfilled dream of visiting Barbados one day.
Even though it has been many, many years since I last read this book, I knew exactly what was going to happen when Prudence dropped her doll in the water. That scene, among many others, was burned in my mind. That's good storytelling, and that's good writing.
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