|
|
 | |
|
|
The Midwife's Apprentice
by Newberry Honor winning author, Karen Cushman Reviewed by Dianne Staley
Beetle begins to learn, slowly becoming more useful. She learns to gather the midwife's herbs, start the fire and roast the bacon. When Jane is called to the aid of a woman laboring to birth her baby, Beetle carries the basket of supplies. Although life is a hard and dirty business, Beetle grows in self-assurance. As the author describes the two meals a day of onion, cheese and bread, and the "herbs, leaches and spiders' webs" Jane uses to ply her trade, the reader is drawn into Middle Ages daily life. Moments of fun are woven in, relieving the drear reality. Early on Beetle befriends a cat that stays with her and becomes her first friend. Her second friend, an unlikely ally, is one of the teasing boys from the village. From a market fair to a country inn, to the fall tasks of soap making and brewing cider and wine, the scenes and sense of daily life shine out of these pages. As Beetle comes of age and finds her place in the life of a medieval village, Ms. Cushman gives an entertaining lesson in medieval history. |
In The Midwife's Apprentice, Karen Cushman paints a realistic portrait of 14th century life, devoid of romanticism. A homeless young girl, who knows herself only as Brat, is rescued by the village midwife, who puts her to work in exchange for dry bread and half a mug of stale ale. Jane, the midwife, renames her Beetle, and the girl stays on to work in exchange for her keep.
|
|