Book Reviews
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African American girl with illustrated book from album (disbound): Types of American Negroes, compiled and prepared by W.E.B. Du Bois between 1899 and 1900. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-124804.
[Begin Page 152]
The lead-off set of reviews in this issue represents the second installment of an occasional book review feature—the pairing of a children's book reviewed by a scholar whose own work on a related topic is also under review. (For the first set of paired reviews on the topic of children in the civil rights movement see JHCY volume 4.1.) Our intention in creating this feature was to offer JHCY readership a chance to reflect on the value of using kids' books in the classroom as an integral part of teaching the history of childhood and adolescence.
In this issue, the shared topic of the two texts—Anna Mae Duane's Suffering Childhood in Early America and Ann Petry's Tituba of Salem Village—is one that has generated considerable attention. As Duane notes, scholarly explanations for the late seventeenth-century New England witch trials have ranged from demographic to biological and located gender relations, economic turmoil, and political unease at the core of the trials. Yet until the publication of this powerful and provocative text, few scholars have focused on the age of girls who began the accusations.
This fact, however, appears to have been noticed by young readers. Even the most cursory search of the shelves in the children's section of any public library reveals a positive fascination with the witch trials. Some of these children's books create young fictional heroines who must decide whether or not to become involved in the craze. Some teach children how to analyze primary sources using the story of Salem. Some, including Tituba of Salem Village (1956), appear to address issues that may be of relevance to young people today—making such a text a pedagogical and historic triptych with lessons to be learned about the seventeenth century, the 1950s, and the present day. [End Page 153]
