A Time for Witches

SparkNotes Smart Novels

by Lynne Hansen

This series of young adult fiction novels follows Mindy, a teenage girl from modern-day Salem, as she time travels to key moments in American history to fight off alien invasions. Each book highlights approximately 500 historical facts about the period in which the book is set with humorous, engaging lists interspersed throughout. This series supports high school history curricula, but can also can be used to prepare for the A.P. U.S. History SAT subject tests.

A Time for Witches-Mindy Gold observes the Salem Witch Trials from a front-row seat-the one where they put the accused witches.

Genres: Historical Fiction

184 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Lynne Hansen is the author of seven dark novels for teens. You can read more about her at her website at www.LynneHansen.com."

Reviews

[Marcella Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book in the U.S. History Smart Novels series. The book promised to be "the painless way to learn U.S. History", and it definitely lived up to its promise. It is a written as a fiction story about a teenager who time travels to 16th century Salem, Mass. She arrives in the middle of the Salem witch trials epidemic, and quickly finds herself on trial. After each chapter of the fiction story a couple pages of facts are inserted.
The book is written to appeal to a teen reader. It uses common teen slang, a couple swear words and sarcasm. With this combination, even the pages of facts were fun to read. The only thing I didn't like about the book was the explanation for time travel. But even with the ridiculous alien, I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

[del · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I fell asleep the first two times I started to read this, but it turned out to be much better than I had expected. Surprisingly, I learned quote a bit about Colonial America and have the story as something that will stay in the back of my mind. While I could have done without the useless facts about Puritan diets and illnesses, it allowed for a much more interesting read.

Now, for the story: I actually really enjoyed it. Although a bit confusing and slow towards the beginning, once the plot began to unfold I found it much easier to read and much more entertaining. Also, the romance develops quite subtley and slowly, which is just how I like it. Definitely going to read the next books like ASAP as May 14 is looming over me and I need to pass that AP test.

[April · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved all the info about the Salem witch trials. You had me, until the aliens part; that was just a bit more fiction than I was expecting.