The Midwife's Apprentice

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by Karen Cushman. Novel. 144 pages. Grades 5-9.
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Review

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Cushman has a talent for writing small pithy novels as she did with Catherine Called Birdy. Again in this Newbery Award winner she propels us, within a few pages, into the life of a girl living in the middle ages, makes us like and understand her, shows us a lot about the times and a little bit about ourselves. In The Midwife's Apprentice Cushman presents life at the bottom of the feudal ladder in Medieval times.

Birdy was the daughter of a minor baron and, through her, we had glimpses of the life of the higher classes of the 13th century. Alyce is an insignificant, nameless child living in poverty and sleeping in a dung heap when we first meet her. We know her first as Brat. She is usually ignored and sometimes taunted by the other people in the village. Her progress from a Brat working for scraps of food to Alyce, the Midwife's apprentice, is painful and thought-provoking. By the end of these well-wrought pages, we know Alyce and accept her small steps toward a better life.

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