The Betrayal of Maggie Blair

Avery Setzer

Mrs. White

Honors World History

11 October 2014

The Betrayal of

 Maggie Blair

   Written By Elizabeth Laird

“When Maggie’s grandmother is accused of witchcraft, the sixteen-year-old has to run for her life. With English soldiers on the march, nowhere is safe- certainly not Ladymuir, where her uncle is determined to defy the king. And where Maggie goes, disaster follows. When an old enemy turns up at Ladymuir and settles in as one of the family, Maggie knows that trouble will result, but even she can’t imagine the deceit and betrayal that’s to come...” – Summary by Elizabeth Laird

Characters to know-
Maggie Blair - Main Protagonist
Elspeth/Granny - Maggie's grandmother
Tam - Traveling (often drunk) minstrel, close friend of Maggie's
Mr. Macbean - Rich farm owner up the road, dislike of Maggie's family, wants their land
Annie - Mr. Macbean's servant girl, antagonist,
Hugh Blair - Maggie's uncle,  devoted protestant
Isobel Blair - Maggie's aunt, untrusting of Maggie
Ritchie, Martha, & Nanny - Maggie's cousins

Summary (Quotes are included in the summary)

      In this 17^th century tale, Maggie Blair has to run to save her life when her grandmother is accused of witchcraft and the question of her own status is brought forward; she is forced to flee from her hometown’s false accusations, “’shouldn’t we arrest her too, Mr. Robertson? She’ll have taken the evil from the old woman.’” (Laird 55). Although happy to leave behind the people such as Mr. Macbean and his servant girl Annie, she is uncertain about leaving the place that she has known her whole life. She soon found her way to Ladymuir, the home of her deceased father’s brother, a highly devoted protestant, something that was greatly frowned upon by the Catholic Church at the time, “’to meet for prayer in the open is against the law-‘ ‘Against the kings law, not against God’s’” (Laird 181). Not only does she have to avoid the crown and their soldiers with the rest of the family, she has to put up with her strict and demanding aunt who seems to frown on anything Maggie says or does. At a secret meeting for the protestant meetings, a troop of the king’s soldiers storm, forcing everyone to flee. In the commotion, Maggie and her aunt discover that someone had turned them in; someone no one but Maggie had ever suspected; and she joyfully triumphed with “the smile of grim, justified triumph that [she] knew had lifted [her] mouth” (Laird 265). Meanwhile, her uncle is taken into custody and she soon sets out after him to bring her new family back together. As she follows the trail of her uncle she learns of many lost pieces of her father’s past and that she has new choices to make about her life. She learns what real betrayal is when she discovers her hidden past that was held secret by the one who tried to get rid of her.

Book Trailer for The Betrayal of Maggie Blair  (Use Mozilla if Internet Explorer doesn’t work)

About the Author:

               

         Elizabeth Laird was born in New Zealand to her Scottish father and New Zealand mother. She and her family grew up in Europe and many of her stories were inspired by personal events and folklore stories that she has collected throughout her travels. She has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal five times and has won numerous awards for her children’s books and she has also won the Hampshire Book Award. She has visited all of the locations visited in the novel and spent a large amount of time on the Isle of Bute, a location in the novel, exploring the area and learning about it.  She spent many years traveling and teaching and eventually earned a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics. I believe that she was a great author for this book because she is well versed in the folklore of the area, and traveled Europe and knows a great deal about the culture there.

Some of her other works include:

• Red Sky in the Morning aka Loving Ben (1988)
• Kiss the Dust (1991)
• Hiding Out (1993)
• Jay (1997)
• Jake's Tower (2001)
• The Garbage King (2003)
• A Little Piece of Ground (2003)
• Paradise End (2004)
• Secrets of the Fearless (2005)
• Crusade (2007)
• Lost Riders (2008)
• The Witching Hour (2009)
• The Prince who Walked with Lions (2012), about Prince Alemayehu

Thoughts:

I enjoyed the book with its realistic themes mixed with the not so realistic adventures of a teenage girl who wanted a place to belong. I like the ideas of witch trials and the religious rebellion that was happening at the time. The way it is written causes you to feel all of Maggie’s emotions and struggles and that’s probably my favorite aspect of the book. Also, the thrill of traveling with Maggie as she goes after her uncle was fun to read about and I was very interested in all the people she met and the unexpected ways that she learned about her father’s past. The characters were really strong in this book and I easily shared Maggie’s hatred for Annie; she was just really annoying, though I still grimaced at her ending. But we can’t all have a happy ending can we? Speaking of endings, that’s probably the only thing I did not enjoy, as it was rather abrupt and I was kind of just left with her thoughts and my imagination. I wished she had gone on a bit more but I think it’s probably better she ended it the way she did, anymore would have been overkill. Despite the ending I still enjoyed the book and I believe it was a very successful novel.