ROWENA AKINYEMI
The Witches of Pendle
THE WITCHES OF PENDLE
In England in the 1600s many people believed in witches. A witch could be an old woman, or a young woman – sometimes even a man or a boy. But they were usually women, and everybody was very afraid of them. Because a witch could kill you – just with a curse.
In 1612, near Pendle Hill in Lancashire, lived a girl called Jennet Device. She was nine years old then, poor, thin, and hungry. She had no shoes, no coat, and sometimes nothing to eat for days. Life was not easy for Jennet Device.
And her grandmother, Old Demdike, was a witch. Her mother Elizabeth was a witch, and her sister Alizon. Even her poor stupid brother James was a witch … Or that is what the villagers believed.
This is Jennet’s story of her family. It begins in 1634, when Jennet is a prisoner in Lancaster Castle …
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DPOxford University Press is a department of the University of OxfordIt furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide inOxford New YorkAuckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei TorontoWith offices inArgentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine VietnamOXFORD and OXFORD ENGLISH are registered trade marks of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countriesThis edition © Oxford University Press 2008The moral rights of the author have been assertedDatabase right Oxford University Press (maker)First published in Oxford Bookworms 19942 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1No unauthorized photocopyingAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address aboveYou must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirerAny websites referred to in this publication are in the public domain and their addresses are provided by Oxford University Press for information only. Oxford University Press disclaims any responsibility for the contentISBN 978 0 19 478924 0A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of The Witches of Pendle is available on audio CD ISBN 978 0 19 478859 5Typeset by Wyvern Typesetting Ltd, BristolPrinted in Hong Kong Illustrated by: Susie FosterWord count (main text): 5730 wordsFor more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library, visit www.oup.com/bookwormswww.oup.com/bookwormse-Book ISBN 978 0 19 478705 5e-Book first published 2012 
