Gallows Hill

by Lois Ruby

Overview

Salem, Massachusetts - 1692

Thomas is marked as an outcast the moment he steps off the ship from England. As a Quaker, he’s outnumbered and distrusted by Salem’s Puritans. And as an orphan without any useful skills, he has nowhere to live and no way to earn his keep. In a stroke of luck—perhaps good, perhaps not—he’s taken in by the aged widow Prudence Blevins, who’s rumored to be a witch.

Patience has tried all her life to be a good Puritan—obedient to God and to her elders—and all her life, she has come up short. But her orderly world is upended when her younger sister, Abigail, falls victim to a mysterious affliction. The same torments have stricken other Salem girls, who claim they’re being bewitched by servants of the Devil. Soon the girls, including Abigail, begin accusing neighbors of witchcraft.

As the community becomes consumed by suspicion and fear, Thomas and Patience search for the truth. To protect those they care about, they will have to question everything they think they know: their faiths, their loyalties, and their places in Salem.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728431024
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/05/2023
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	1,134,812
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.63(d)
Age Range:	11 - 12 Years

About the Author

Lois Ruby is a former librarian and the author of twenty-two books for young readers. She divides her time among family, community social action, research, writing, and visiting schools to energize young people about the ideas in books and the joys of reading. Lois lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and shares her life with her psychologist husband, Dr. Tom Ruby, as well as their three sons and daughters-in-law and seven amazing grandchildren, who are scattered around the country.

Editorial Reviews

"Ruby powerfully showcases the terror, and the consequences, of a witchcraft accusation on the accused as well as the community as a whole in the era." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

11/01/2023

Gr 9 Up—Told in alternating points of view, Ruby's latest work is set during the witch trials in 17th-century Salem. Thomas Stillbrooke and his sister Grace arrive in Salem in the spring of 1692 after losing their mother in childbirth and their father to illness in search of land during the journey from London. They are both Quakers, a minority in Puritan Salem. After disembarking their ship, the pair quickly encounter Patience Woodstock, the fishmonger's daughter, who is a resident of Salem. Patience has witnessed firsthand the effects of the suspected witchcraft on the young girls of Salem and, in fact, one of the girls afflicted is her own younger sister, Abigail. The religious undertones between the Puritans and the Quakers combined with the escalating tensions involved in the trials makes for an engaging tale of friendship set against a turbulent historical period. Ruby powerfully showcases the terror, and the consequences, of a witchcraft accusation on the accused as well as the community as a whole in the era. Main characters present as white and heterosexual. VERDICT Recommended for larger collections, and for fans of Stephanie Hemphill's Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials and Adriana Mather's How to Hang a Witch.—Susan Catlett

School Library Journal

2023-07-13
Two teens come of age during the Salem witch trials.

After losing their father on the ship from England, Thomas, a 15-year-old Quaker, has just arrived in Salem, Massachusetts, with Grace, his younger sister. It’s February 1692, and they reach their new home just as girls exhibiting abnormal behavior are believed to be bewitched and community members are accused of practicing witchcraft. Struggling in a Puritan community that is not welcoming to Quakers, Thomas eventually finds work as a shoemaker’s apprentice and locates housing with cantankerous Goodwidow Blevins. Meanwhile, 14-year-old Puritan Patience is alarmed when her younger sister, Abigail, succumbs to frightening fits. Abigail accuses Goodwidow Blevins of cursing her. In this story told in alternating points of view, Thomas’ and Patience’s paths cross and feelings begin to grow between them. Historical elements are deftly woven in, showing the impacts of the Salem witch trials, from the horrid conditions the accused faced while imprisoned to brutal hangings and the ways families were torn apart. The prejudice the Quakers faced both in England and the Colonies is portrayed sympathetically; there are also mentions of Christians’ prejudice toward Indigenous communities and the abduction of a white girl by the Wabanaki. The author takes care to weave various different theories for the causes of the events into the storyline. All main characters are coded white.

Effective historical fiction revisiting a fascinating and complicated time in American history. (discussion questions, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 12-17)

Kirkus Reviews