A copy of the book, 'The Witch of Blackbird Pond'. The paperback version, Audible and Kindle versions are available from Amazon starting at $6.99, but you can purchase from any bookstore of your choice. Most libraries will have this book on their shelves. 

Your copy can be a hard copy, electronic copy, or audio copy. If English is your second language feel free to read the story in your first language, if available.  You will however, be expected to discuss in English as your teacher is not bi-lingual. 

Suspicion of and discrimination against people perceived as different, in this case strong and independent women, is the theme in this book.  Women  and their adherence to expected roles and behaviors in Puritan society was strict and unforgiving.  The consequences of stepping outside the expected norm for a woman could be fatal, as was exhibited by the infamous Witch trials. These had not yet begun in the colonies, at the time of the story, but  they were already rampant in Europe. Suspicions were beginning to cause accusations and unrest in what was to become the future USA. Religious intolerance and the lack of rights and options for women, within a Puritan community, are the themes of this book. 

"Historical fiction necessarily reflects two distinct pasts, the historical past it takes as its subject matter, and the historical past of its creation as well as beliefs and attitudes held in the present in which it is read. Thus, The Witch of Blackbird Pond has as much to say about present-day America and the United States of the 1950s as it does about the Connecticut of the 1680s."  Sara L. Schwebel, Historical Fiction and the Classroom: History and Myth in Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond.

For this reason both the institution of Slavery and The American Indigenous people are portrayed through the myth and lens of those times.  While Speare presents slavery as a vile institution through the eyes of the Puritans, Kit, has never really given much thought to what it means outside  her own pampered experience.  American Indians (Indigenous people) are feared by the settlers, and only the settlers' perspectives are presented in the book. 
In order to address both of these mythological and biased points of view, of two very real groups of people, questions will be included to encourage the students to think of the situations presented from the point of view of the slaves and of the native people. Emphasis will be given to highlighting throughout the story the influence of her own culture and time on the way Ms Speare represents slavery, Native people, women and Puritans.  If any parent wants to contact me regarding perspective, or their student's reactions to the book or classroom discussion please do so.