# The Witch of Blackbird Pond

**Author:** Elizabeth George Speare
**Lexile:** 850L
**Grade range:** Grades 5–8
**Age range:** 10–14
**First published:** 1958
**Page count:** 256
**Genre:** Historical Fiction (Middle Grade)
**ISBN-13:** `9780547550299`
**ISBN-10:** `0547550294`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-witch-of-blackbird-pond
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler arrives in 1687 Puritan Connecticut and is accused of witchcraft after befriending an older Quaker woman called the Witch of Blackbird Pond. Speare's Newbery Medal novel is standard 5th-7th grade colonial-America cross-curriculum reading.

## Themes

- tolerance
- colonial Puritan society
- friendship
- prejudice
- coming of age

## Content notes

- witch-trial accusations
- religious persecution

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 11+

## Where this book is assigned

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **required** · 6th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 6-8 Newbery Medal](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **required** · 6th grade · Connecticut — [source: CT ELA Standards — Connecticut-set colonial canon](https://portal.ct.gov/sde)

### Newbery Medal

- **recommended** · 3rd grade — [source: Newbery Medal (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 1959 Newbery Medal winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)
- **recommended** · 4th grade — [source: Newbery Medal (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 1959 Newbery Medal winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)
- **recommended** · 5th grade — [source: Newbery Medal (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 1959 Newbery Medal winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)
- **recommended** · 6th grade — [source: Newbery Medal (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 1959 Newbery Medal winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)
- **recommended** · 7th grade — [source: Newbery Medal (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 1959 Newbery Medal winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)

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