The Beet Fields Memories Of A Sixteenth Summer

Newes from the Dead

Written by Mary Hopper

Taylor LeGrand

Main Characters:
- Anne Green is the main character of the story. She was a maidservant who was taken in
by a man named Geoffery Reade. He promised her marriage, and she because she believed
this, she allowed herself to be seduced by this man. He gets her pregnant, and she gives birth
to a premature, stillborn child. Geoffery’s grandfather, Sir Thomas accused her of infanticide,
and she is sentenced to hang at Oxford. Whenever she hangs at Oxford something
interesting happens afterwards….
-Geoffery is the man that brought in Anne and he raped her and got her pregnant, then
his grandfather accused her of infanticide.
-Robert is a man who is the scholar who was brought in to watch Anne’s dissection, and
he saw her eyelid move, so they knew Anne might not have been dead.

Main Conflict:
-Anne Green is not dead after her hanging, and she is laying on the table motionless.
She is conscious, but she cannot move or speak, and she cannot open your eyelids.
The doctors still do not think she is alive, and she has to figure out how to show them that
she is not dead. This is a matter of life and death.

Three Important actions:
1. Anne was raped, and she got accused for infanticide because she gave birth to a premature,
stillborn child, and she was sentenced to death.
2. Whenever Anne was hanged, she did not die and Anne woke up on the dissection table,
but she could not move or speak or even open her eyes.
3. Scientists finally found out she was only sleeping, and they ran all these tests on her to test her senses, and finally she
came back to consciousness, and she fully recovered when being put in a bed with
another woman.

Three Important Quotes:

• “Behind him had stood a great crowd of people, a man wearing a black hood, and a mighty wooden scaffold from which hung a heavy, knotted rope” (page 4).

This quote is relevant for the historical time period because it was during the time of hanging people, and this does not happen today. Hanging was a punishment that was very common during the 1600s, and it being in the book shows how serious this crime that Anne was accused of is.

• “He’d be sentenced to the branded on the cheek, and he professed he was content with this, for it was his third offense and he might have been hanged” (page 175).

This quote is relevant to the time period because the hanging is something that was very common in that day, and also branding was common during that time. Now, people do not get branded or hung for punishments, the death penalties are different and the punishments are not as harsh.

• “Cleanliness is next to godliness, it says in a text on the wall of the dairy, which was sewn by Lady Mary’s own hand” (page 176).

This quote is relevant to the time period because now, people do not sewn many things by hand, and also dairies are not  common today, and people more than likely will paint instead of sewing on the walls.

Historical Events:

1. Anne Green is an actual lady that lived in 1650, and this whole book was based on her life, and the author researched her life and wrote the book about it.
2. The hanging is also a historically true event because people actually did get hanged for their crimes.
3. Anne Green got pregnant out of marriage, and she had to hide it from the church and anyone else because if they found out she would have gotten punished. Women got punished for a lot of things back in the 1600s because women’s rights were not relevant like they are today.

Book’s Success:

• The book was a success because it kept my attention, and the storyline was good. The author did a good job of researching Anne Green, and it made the story realistic.

About the Author:

• She is a writer for children and young adult books.
• Her brilliant historical novels have a huge fan base, as do her contemporary novels for teenagers.
• She got nominated for the North East Book Award.
• She has two grown children and lives with her husband in Oxfordshire, England.