A Break with Charity

A Break with Charity  
Author(s) Ann Rinaldi
Country United States
Language English
Series Great Episodes
Genre(s) Historical Fiction
Publisher Gulliver Books
Publication date 15 September 1992
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 272 pp (1st HB)
ISBN ISBN 0-15-200353-3 (1st HB)
OCLC Number 25548979
LC Classification PZ7.R459 Br 1993
Preceded by A Ride into Morning
Followed by The Fifth of March

A Break with Charity: A Story about the SaleWitch Trials (ISBN 0-15-204682-8) is a novel by Ann Rinaldi released in 1992, and is part of the Great Episodes series.

Plot synopsis

The story begins with a girl named Susana English who desperately wants to join an inner circle of girls who meet every night at the Reverend's house. The leader of the girls, Ann Putnam, is going to set off a torrent of false accusations leading to the imprisonment of innocent people in Salem. She names people her mother disliked as witches, and the elders of Salem believe them. Ann tells Susana everything about their plan, but if Susanna tells anyone, Ann will name Susana's parents as witches. Susana must choose between keeping quiet and breaking charity (that is, telling tales), risking her family being named as witches. Later on, the afflicted girls accuse Susana's mother and father of being witches, even though she told no one about what Ann said to her. She finally tells Joseph, Ann's uncle, leader of the "non-witch believers" what she knows, and together, they put a stop to it. Fourteen years later she returns to hear Ann Putnam apologize for all the innocent people imprisoned, or hanged. This story is based on true happenings of 1692.

See also

Novels by Ann Rinaldi
Episodes
A Ride into Morning (1991)  • A Break with Charity (1992)  • The Fifth of March (1993)  • Finishing Becca (1994)  • The Secret of Sarah Revere (1995)  • Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons (1996)  • An Acquaintance with Darkness (1997)  • Cast Two Shadows (1998)  • The Coffin Quilt (1999)  • The Staircase (2000)  • Girl in Blue (2001)  • Numbering all the Bones (2002)  • Or Give Me Death (2003)  • An Unlikely Friendship (2007)  • Come Juneteenth (2007)  • The Ever-After Bird (2007)  • Juliet's Moon (2008) The Letter Writer (2008)
Dear America
My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl (1999)  • The Journal of Jasper Jonathan Pierce, a Pilgrim Boy (2000)
Other novels
Term Paper (1980)  • Promises Are for Keeping (1982)  • But in the Fall I'm Leaving (1985)  • Time Enough for Drums (1986)  • The Good Side of My Heart (1987)  • The Last Silk Dress (1988)  • Wolf by the Ears (1991)  • In My Father's House (1992)  • The Second Bend in the River (1997)  • Mine Eyes Have Seen (1997)  • Amelia's War (1999)  • The Education of Mary: A Little Miss of Color, 1832 (2000)  • Girl in Blue (2001)  • Millicent's Gift (2002)  • Taking Liberty: (2002)  • Numbering All the Bones (2002)  • Sarah's Ground (2004)  • Mutiny's Daughter (2004)  • Nine Days a Queen (2005)  • Brooklyn Rose (2005)  • The Color of Fire (2005)  • The Redheaded Princess (2008)  • My Vicksburg (2009)  • Leigh-Anne's Civil War (2009)  • The Family Greene (2010)  • The Last Full Measure (November 2010)