The Minister's Daughter

Historical fiction

Book- The Ministers Daughter

 

Author- Julie Hearn

The Minister's Daughter was a really good book. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the book knowing that it was going to have to do with witchcraft. But once I got started it was definitely a page turner about the petty, human side of a dark time for anyone who was different.

 

Set during the tumultuous era of the English Civil War, The book focuses on Grace and Patience Madden, the ministers' daughters and Nell, granddaughter to the village healer, heir to all her knowledge. Conceived on May Morning, Nell is claimed by the piskies and faeries as a merrybegot, one of their own. She is a wild child: herb gatherer and healer, spell-weaver and midwife...and, some say, a witch. Grace is everything Nell is not. She is the Puritan minister's daughter: beautiful and refined, innocent and sweet-natured...to those who think they know her. As for Patience she is considered slow and dim witted while she never plays an active part in the main narrative, her confession years later adds dimensions to the story being played out. The force of her rage and resentment nearly fifty years later permeates her "confession," as well as a self-portrayal as an innocent victim that the main storyline casts into doubt.


Problems arise when the ministers daughters are suddenly confined to their beds. They are unable to rise, prone to wild outbursts and insane visions. All the signs seem to point to one thing--witchcraft. As the old pagan ways of Nell and her grandmother clash with the new Puritan views of the Madden family, dragging the whole village in after them, one thing comes clear only one family can come out on top.

However there are things nobody knows about Grace Madden except for Nell. Like the identity of the boy Grace has been sneaking out at night to see. Like Grace's secretive visit to Nell's house. Like the due date of  16 year old, unmarried Grace's child.

There are so many twists and tuns in this story to keep your attention. I would recommend this book to an older age group. Maybe junior high because they are mature but possibly freshmen and up. Not so much because of the content but the book does get a little confusing sometime because the chapters go between their present day story and Patience Madden's future confession to the role she played in the story when she was younger. In addition the story is written with some lyrical prose thrown in kind of randomly.

I would tell a summary about the story to grab students attention and read one of the spells used in the story. For instance-

A SPELL TO SOOTHE A TRUCULENT PIG
First, catch your pig. Do it on a Monday,
on a waning moon, when the time be right for healing.
Point him to the north, and hang on tight.
Rap his snout three times with a wand of oak, and call: "Powers of earth, tame and soothe this creature that he
may become docile and no longer a bogging nuisance."
Wait seven beats of the heart, then let him go.
So mote it be