Kristina West is an affiliated member of the Graduate Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media at the University of Reading, UK. Her research focuses on American literature, children's literature, and critical theory. Her first book, Louisa May Alcott and the Textual Child, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2020. 

Introduction: The child as witch.- 1. 'Bitch witches': Reading 'affliction' in the Salem witch narratives.- 2. The case of Dorcas Good: accuser and accused.- 3. Childhood, witchcraft, and absence.- 4. Motherhood and witchcraft in Salem.- 5. Ann's Story.- 6. Fictionalising Salem: The reconstructed child.- 7. Conclusion: Salem in the twenty first century.