Starred Review for Publishers Weekly (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

The author of <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Out of the Dustagain turns language into music in her second quietly moving novel written entirely in verse. Here, 11 narrative voices chronicle actual events occurring in a sleepy Vermont town after the arrival of the Ku Klux Klan in 1924. Those victimized by the Klan include the families of Leanora Sutter, a 12-year-old African-American girl, and Esther Hirsh, the six-year-old daughter of a Jewish shoe salesman. Rounding out the portrait of the town are community leaders (an enlightened physician, a newspaper editor who moves from neutral to anti-Klan) as well as less prominent folk—shopkeepers, a Protestant minister—who are swayed into joining the white supremacist group. Their chorus of hatred rings loudly at first, but is tempered by their dawning realization of the severity of the Klan's punishment to their targets as well as the more rational, compassionate strains of the Klan's opponents. Hesse offers glimpses of the world at large through references to Prohibition, the Leopold and Loeb case and a letter Leanora pens to Helen Keller. The author distinguishes the characters (whose pictures appear in the front of the book) not only by their varying opinions but also by their tone of speech. The simpler, candid language of the two youngest cast members, Leanora and Esther, effectively crystallizes their gradual loss of innocence. Easily read in one sitting, this lyrical novel powerfully records waves of change and offers insightful glimpses into the hearts of victims, their friends and their enemies. Ages 9-12. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)

ALA Booklist

Using real events, Hesse tells a story of the Ku Klux Klan in a small town in Vermont in 1924 in the same clear free-verse as her Newbery winner, Out of the Dust (1997). This time, however, she uses 11 different voices, each one distinct, including two kids who are new to town--Leonora Sutter, 12, who is black, and Esther Hirsh, 6, who is Jewish. Then there are various adult townspeople: the violent Klan bigots (who attack "those who are not like us" in the name of Protestantism and patriotism), the antiracist crusaders, and the bystanders. Most interesting is Merlin, 18, who starts off in flaming hatred but changes. Then there's the affectionate married couple--he's in the Klan; she's against it. Their comic squabbles about it are fun, until you realize how serious the issue is. The story is told in five acts, and, in fact, it will work best as reader's theater. It's more a situation than a straight narrative, with too many characters and too many plot threads that aren't fully developed. But Hesse's spare writing leaves space for readers to imagine more about that time and about their own. The voices personalize the history and reveal how events felt to different people: the daily hurt (like the circus sideshow, where it's fun to take shots at the "nigger's" head); the lure ("the kkk / is looking to rent the town hall for their meetings / why shouldn't they?"); the opposition that refused to allow the Klan to move in. Add this to the Holocaust curriculum, not because every racial incident means genocide, but because the book will spark discussion about how such a thing can happen even now.

Horn Book

Eleven different voices record the Ku Klux Klan's effects on a Vermont town in 1924. Many of the fictional cast (two children and nine adults) feel more like types than complex individuals. The free-verse format works well for some characters, but with others, the entries sound heavy and obviously staged. Witness has a compelling story to tell, but one that is too complex to work effectively in this format.

Kirkus Reviews

In this stunning piece of little-known American history, Hesse ( Stowaway , 2000, etc.) paints small-town Vermont on the brink of self-destruction circa 1924. The narrative poetry format has fitting roots in "The Spoon River Anthology." Eleven characters speak revealingly for themselves to describe a year in which the Ku Klux Klan arrives, seduces many solid citizens, moves from intimidation to threat to violence, and is finally rejected by the tolerant, no-nonsense townsfolk. Central to the story are two children, one an African-American named Leanora, and the other, a Jewish fresh-air child from New York, named Esther. As targets of prejudice, the lives of both are affected by the actions of the KKK: Leanora is the victim of racist remarks and threats, and Esther sees her father shot while she's sitting on his lap. The story is all the more haunting for its exquisite balance of complex and intersecting points of view on gender, ethnicity, politics, religion, and money. The setting is well developed through subtly embedded period details of everyday Vermont life (a broom sale creates a stampede) and incidents of national historical significance (the Leopold and Loeb trial). The voices of each character have a distinct resonance, but the voice of Esther, the moral center of the book, is memorable. It has a unique beauty and style created by Esther's innocent and hopeful way of expression, but revealing of her immigrant roots in New York. This is carefully crafted, with Leanora, who evolves and grows in wisdom and understanding, being given the first and last word. What Copeland created with music, and Hopper created with paint, Hesse deftly and unerringly creates with words: the iconography of Americana, carefully researched, beautifully written, and profoundly honest. (Fiction. 10-14)

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up-In this remarkable and powerful book, Hesse invites readers to bear witness to the Ku Klux Klan's activities in a small Vermont town in the 1920s. Using free verse as she did in Out of the Dust (Scholastic, 1997), the narrative here is expanded to encompass the voices of 11 townspeople, young and old, of various races and creeds. The story is divided into five acts, and would lend itself beautifully to performance. The plot unfolds smoothly, and the author creates multidimensional characters, all of whom seem very real. One of the least sympathetic is an 18-year-old boy who begins the book by wanting to open a classroom window to let out the smell of the black girl. By the end, he is transformed by circumstances in a thoroughly plausible way. The writing includes vivid images, such as when Leanora, the black girl, sees a burning cross. She hides in a closet: "in that dark and narrow place,/i opened a hole for myself/but no matter how i turned,/the light from the cross/curled its bright claws under the door." It also includes some quiet yet irreducible moments that resonate long after the book is put down. The small details seem just right, and demonstrate that this is much more than a social tract. It's a thoughtful look at people and their capacity for love and hate.-Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.