The Witch of Blackbird Pond is a children's novel by American author Elizabeth George Speare, published in 1958. The story takes place in late 17th-century New England. It won the Newbery Medal in 1958. Plot summary In April 1687, 16-year-old Katherine Tyler (known as Kit) leaves her home in Barbados after her grandfather dies and a 50-year-old man tries to marry her. She relocates to Wethersfield, Connecticut to live with her Aunt Rachel, Uncle Matthew, and her two cousins, Judith and Mercy, in their Puritan community. A brief stop is made in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, to pick up four new passengers. As the small rowboat returns to the ship, a young girl named Prudence accidentally drops her doll in the water and begs her harsh mother, Goodwife Cruff, to get it back for her. Impulsively, Kit jumps into the water and retrieves the doll. She is then met with astonished suspicion, as few white people in Connecticut could swim so well. Cruff is the most skeptical of them all, believing Kit is a witch, commenting, "No respectable woman could stay afloat like that." On the slow trip upriver, Kit befriends John Holbrook, another passenger coming to Wethersfield to study with the Reverend Gershom Bulkeley. Kit finds Wethersfield very different from Barbados. Unlike at her previous home, where Kit's family owned servants and slaves, she is expected to work here along with the rest of the family. Her cousin Mercy has a lame leg and is on crutches. Kit is required to attend the Sabbath church meetings twice each Sunday, which she finds dull. Kit meets a rich young man, William Ashby. He begins courting her, though she does not care for him. Originally, her cousin Judith had hoped to marry William, but she focuses on John Holbrook, a divinity student studying with Bulkeley. Kit's life improves when she and Mercy begin teaching some young children of Wethersfield, who are preparing for traditional school. Everything proceeds well until one day, bored with the normal lessons, Kit decides the children will reenact a passage from the Bible: the parable of the Good Samaritan. The head of the school, Eleazer Kimberly, enters the house just as things get out of hand. He is outraged at Kit for having the audacity to act out something from the Bible and shuts down the school. Heartbroken, Kit flees to the meadows where she meets and befriends