Ann Rinaldi:
(August 27, 1934 – July 1, 2021).
American journalist and young adult fiction author. She was best known for her historical fiction, including In My Father’s House, The Last Silk Dress, An Acquaintance with Darkness, A Break with Charity, Numbering All The Bones and Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons. She wrote more than forty novels, eight of which were listed as notable by the ALA. In 2000, Wolf by the Ears was listed as one of the best novels of the preceding twenty-five years, and later of the last one hundred years. She also wrote for the Dear America series.
There comes a day each September when you wake up and know the summer is over and fall has arrived. The slant of the sun looks different and something is in the air―a coolness, a hint of frosty mornings to follow. I woke early on the morning of September 24 and reached for a warmer petticoat.
The passage describes the subtle but unmistakable transition from summer to autumn:
– “The slant of the sun looks different”:
refers to the lower angle and changed quality of autumn sunlight.
– “Something is in the air”:
suggests that seasonal change is sensed instinctively, through temperature, light, smell, and atmosphere.
– “A hint of frosty mornings to follow”:
anticipates colder weather and also creates a slightly ominous mood appropriate to the novel.
– Reaching for “a warmer petticoat” grounds the passage in its seventeenth-century setting. A petticoat was a skirt-like garment worn in layers and could provide warmth.
Thus, the description is both a realistic observation about autumn and a tonal introduction to a story entering a colder, darker period. It is a ‘passage of three sentences’, rather than a single sentence.
📚 Author and origin:
The passage is by Ann Rinaldi and appears at the beginning of her historical novel:
> “A Break with Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials” (1992)
The novel is narrated by Susanna English and is set during the “Salem witch trials of 1692”. The date, September 24, places the scene just after the final executions of the trials on September 22.
