Divine Mistakes

As mentioned in my previous post, I decided to reread some of my favourite books from my adolescence (despite the fact that my ABR library things book arrived today). Thus, today I’m reviewing two of my all-time favourite picker-upper reads: Calico Captive and The Witch of Blackbird Pond, both by Elizabeth George Speare.

I was first introduced to The Witch of Blackbird Pond when my fifth grade teacher read it aloud to us. I was hooked to the story of Katherine ‘Kit’ Tyler, born and raised in Barbados in the mid-17th century, who is forced (upon her grandfather’s death) to leave her tropical home and travel to live with her aunt and her family in Connecticut Colony (1687). Aside from being interested in the historical aspect of it, Nathaniel ‘Nat’ Eaton, son of the captain of the ship on which Kit made her voyage, was the first fictional character I ever fell in love with. I know for most girls my age that honour usually goes to Gilbert Blythe, and while I will always have a fondness for Gil, my first was definitely Nat.

It was my love of TWOBP that led me to Calico Captive in my middle school library, on the prowl for a new book to read. The title intrigued me, though I wouldn’t have been able to differentiate calico from any other type of fabric, and as I knew I enjoyed the author I decided to give it a try. Based on the real narrative account of Susanna Johnson, it follows the story of Susanna’s younger sister, Miriam Willard, and her family. At the beginning of the story, the family lives just outside the fort at Charlestown, New Hampshire in 1754. The morning after giving a party, the family is kidnapped by Indians (using the book’s terminology for reasons of pure laziness), and so the story follows them through their capture by the Indians, who sell them to various families in Montreal. Continue Reading »