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Witness by Karen Hesse is told from the viewpoints of eleven different townspeople in a small town of Vermont in 1924.  A town in which the Klu Klux Klan has moved in and ultimately changes everything.  I adore free-verse novels and Witness is as powerful as they come.  Based on true characters, there are photographs at the beginning of the book naming each character.  This brought to life to the reader that these emotions, thoughts, lives, and horrific events are not just a made up story. The Klu Klux Kan is a real organization that horrifically changed people’s lives.

Two examples of two different viewpoints of the same event:

johnny reeves
we took a pine
40 feet high and
lashed a cross arm
to it and set the
cross in the ground,
its arms stretching above the town, we soaked burlap bags
in kerosene and wrapped the bags around the wood.
at the foot of the cross i smashed
a railroad torch.
the fire took off so fast.  a divine
sight, neighbor,
the flames spread
from the base to the
top.  in a matter of
minutes the cross arm
pulsed with fire.  the
flames leaping,
seeking heaven
neighbor, the white
crucifix scoring
the night
blazed perfect.
perfect.

leanora sutter

i woke up saturday night
because the light coming through
my bedroom window changed.

on the hill across the valley
i saw
a flame
rising.
but it was
no wild fire. it
was a
cross,
burning.

silently,
silently,
i crept down the hall,
into the closet
where,
at the back,
mamma’s cotton dress
still dangled over her shoes,
and the walls smelled of hair oil and oranges.

in that dark and narrow place,
i opened a hole for myself
but no matter how i turned,
the light from the cross
curled its bright claws under the door.

I did find it interesting but also a bit distracting that there was no capitalization in the entire book.  I suspect that Hesse was stripping the text down to its most simple form.

I have yet to meet a free-verse novel that I didn’t like and this one was no exception.  Hesse has taken on a grim subject matter and thoughtfully portrayed those who were caught up in something larger than themselves.  Beautiful.

Links of interest: More book blogger reviews.
Genre: Historical Fiction, free-verse, ages 9-12.
Publisher: Scholastic. March 1, 2003. Originally published 2001.
Hardcover, 168 pages. ISBN 0439272009
Source copy: Own
Witness is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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