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The Minister's Daughter by Julie Hearn (Atheneum, $16.95, 258 pages). Ages 12 and up. This spellbinding, beautifully written novel links the mischief of true-life witch hunter Matthew Hopkins in mid- 17th century England to the Salem witch trials, alternating between events as they happened in England with the "Confessions of Patience Madden," written more than 45 years later. Nell Gwyn is a "Merrybegot," a child conceived on May morning and therefore blessed. She's also granddaughter of the local midwife and an apprentice schooled in herbal remedies and the ways of fairies and "piksies." Pretty Grace and simple-minded Patience are the daughters of the village's stern new Puritan minister, who denounces pagan ways. When Grace becomes pregnant, she protects herself from her father's wrath by concocting a diabolical scheme to blame Satan and the witchery of Nell and her grandmother. Hearn is a student of "Golden Compass" author Philip Pullman, and she does her mentor proud in this wondrous weaving of fairy lore into afirst-rate work of historical fiction. This is her first novel to be published in the United States.
Bee-bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park (illustrated by Ho Baek Lee, Clarion, $15).
This cute story, told in sing-song rhyme, is basically a recipe related by a little girl watching her mother fix dinner. The complete recipe is printed in the back.
-- Jean Westmoore
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