Product Description

Breaking the Sabbath by playing on a snowy hill, Sarah of Puritan Massachusetts records in her 1650 diary her difficult choice between upsetting her father and letting someone else be punished for her actions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2170570 in Books
• Published on: 1996-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Set in 1651 Salem, Mass., the first volume of the American Diaries series opens and closes with excerpts from the diary of the eponymous 12-year-old heroine. These entries are dated only two days apart-as jacket copy for the series explains, "Sometimes one day can change a life forever." The resulting story, about how Sarah and a friend violate the Sabbath and are harshly punished with stints in the pillory, is slow in plot and a little forced in its characterizations. In place of rapid action, Duey (Mr. Stumpguss Is a Third Grader) fills the narrative with careful details about Puritan customs and ethics, describing everything from the dogs brought to church to warm their owners' feet to the design of the salt barrel in Sarah's root cellar. Impressive though the research may be, it does not offer enough excitement or intrigue to hook the target audience. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7?Puritan bashing has a long history in American children's literature, but this first entry in a new series takes the practice to new depths. Readers will learn that Puritans put 12-year-old girls in the pillory for playing on the Sabbath, and that vindictive ministers punished adults with radical ideas by victimizing their children. This will certainly come as a surprise to any serious student of the time. Sarah, who lives in a small town in Massachusetts in 1650, is upset because her widowed father is going to marry a woman she intensely dislikes. Sarah's best friend, Elizabeth, is a girl whose family has some unspecified "dangerous" ideas. Mistress Goddard tries to prove what a good stepmother she will be by warning Sarah's father about Elizabeth's evil influence. At the end of the story, he realizes how harsh the woman is and calls off the marriage. The book will have some appeal to graduates of the "American Girls Collection Series" (Pleasant), which is obviously intended. The story is exciting and the characters are sympathetic. Period details about clothing, cooking, and the like are well integrated into the story, and some of the descriptive passages are excellent. Whether that makes up for the historical distortion about Puritan faith and practice is another question.?Connie Parker, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Cleveland, OH
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 4^-7. The first volume in the new American Diaries series examines a pivotal event in the life of a 12-year-old Puritan girl. On a bitterly cold Sunday, Sarah and her friend Elizabeth break the Sabbath by laughing and sliding on the icy path on their way home from services. The next day the girls and Elizabeth's brother Roger are pilloried. Taunted by local ruffians, numbed by the cold, and aching from the uncomfortable position, Sarah questions the rules of her community and worries about shaming her father. Perhaps the ending is too neat, but the narrative personalizes the social mores and everyday life of Puritan New England, providing readers with an excellent introduction to American colonial life. Karen Hutt

Customer Reviews

Brings Puritan Massachusetts to life.
Sarah is a twelve-year-old Puritan girl living in Massachusetts in 1651. She is dreadfully unhappy because she fears her widowed father plans to marry a strict woman who dislikes Sarah and considers her to be poorly behaved. Playing on Sundays is strictly forbidden by the Puritan church. But one Sunday after a snow storm, Sarah and her best friend, Elizabeth (whose parents are considered to be somewhat freethinking for Puritans) can't help themselves, and they start to play in the snow, when they notice someone watching them and flee. Later, Mistress Goddard (Sarah's potential future stepmother) comes forward and announces that she saw Elizabeth and her brother Roger (she thought Sarah was Roger because she had borrowed his coat) broke the rules of the Sabbath. Now Roger will be punished when Sarah is the one who broke the rules. Can Sarah find the courage to come forward with the truth? I highly reccomend this excellant, detailed historical novel.

Wonderful!
This is a lovely book! I bought it for my daughter and we both enjoyed it

Very enjoyable book!
This book was about 12 year old Sarah who lives in Puritan New England. Her mother is no longer living and her Father is thinking about marrying a woman Sarah doesn't care for. On the Sabbath, a very strict day in Puritan Society, Sarah walks home with her best friend Elizabeth. But before she walks with her she gets a coat from Elizabeth's brother, because she is cold. So they walk, and Elizabeth slips. But after she realized how fun it was she did it some more and Sarah just had to try. But they were doing something awful. Laughing and playing on Sabbath. The woman Sarah's dad wants to marry hears them and walks over to get a closer look. She reconizes Elizabeth but she mistakens Sarah for Elizabeth's brother (you know, she's wearing his coat). So she runs off and tells everyone. But Sarah feels guilty. She should be the one to blame, not him. Sarah faces moral dilema and tries to do what she knows is right in her heart.