Book Review, Genre 5: THE MIDWIFE’S APPRENTICE
Author: Karen Cushman
Title: The Midwife’s
Apprentice
Illustrator: Trina Schart Hyman
Publisher: Clarion Books
Publication Date: 1995
ISBN: 0-395-69229-6
Plot summary: In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl
is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife after being found in a dung heap.
Despite obstacles and hardships, the young girl selects her own name, makes a
home for herself, and gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a
contented heart, and a place in this world.
Critical analysis: There’s no better way to attract the
attention of junior readers than with poop. And that’s how author Karen Cushman
gets the attention of her readers in the opening sentences of her Newbery Medal-winning
historical fiction book called The
Midwife’s Apprentice: “When animal droppings and garbage and spoiled straw
are piled up in a great heap, the rotting and moiling give forth heat. Usually
no one gets close enough to notice because of the stench. But the girl noticed
and, on that frosty night, burrowed deep into the warm, rotting muck, heedless
of the smell” (p. 1). Of course, Cushman doesn’t exactly use the word poop –
instead she sticks with the style of language used during medieval times -- but
junior readers catch on quick and are then pulled in to the character of a
scrawny, small, pale and frightened girl that at first they might feel sorry
for, but by the end of the book they are rooting for her.
Throughout The Midwife’s
Apprentice, we learn that the young girl (first called Brat, then Beetle)
lives in a small medieval English country village. She meets the village
midwife, who uses Beetle for her own purposes: “Each morning Beetle started the
fire, blowing on the night’s embers to encourage them to light the new day’s
scraps. She swept the cottage’s dirt floor, sprinkled it with water, and
stamped it to keep it hard packed. She roasted the bacon and washed up the mugs
and knives and sprinkled fleabane about to keep the fleas down. She dusted the
shelves packed with jugs and flasks and leather bottles of dragon dung and
mouse ears, frog liver and ashes of toad, snail jelly, borage leaves, nettle
juice and the powdered bark of the black alder tree” (p. 12). By learning about
Beetle’s chores, junior readers learn about an historical medieval setting that
helps them picture the way of life during this time.
During a chance shopping trip for the midwife, Beetle is
treated with decency for the first time in her life, which gives her a spark of
hope and a new name: Alyce. “What a day. She had been winked at, complimented,
given a gift, and now mistaken for the mysterious Alyce who could read. Did she
then look like someone who could read?” (p. 31). And then a new theme of
confidence appears: “‘Alyce,’ she breathed. Alyce sounded clean and friendly
and smart. You could love someone named Alyce./‘This then is me, Alyce.’ It was
right” (p. 32). Readers will relate to the theme of wanting to be loved. It’s a
fact of life that we all want to love and be loved. As the story continues,
Alyce begins to give names to those she loves: Purr the cat and a young boy
named Edward. The cat and Edward are helped by Alyce and she begins to trust in
her friends and in herself. “She was not an inn girl or a nursery maid or a
companion to old women. She was a midwife’s apprentice with a newborn hope of
being someday a midwife herself” (p. 114).
Review excerpt:
- 1996 winner, John Newbery Medal
- 1995 gold, Parents’ Choice Award
- 1998 winner, Young Reader’s Choice Award
- 1996 winner, ABC Children’s Booksellers Choices Award
- Children’s Literature by Susie Wilde: The Midwife's Apprentice starts with an intriguing beginning as the heroine waif, Brat, emerges from a steaming dung heap where she's kept herself warm through a frosty night. Brat does not remember her mother, home or real name. She's rescued from the streets by a none-to-kind midwife who, apropos of their meeting at the story's beginning, re-christens this child, Dung Beetle. Midway through the story, this gutsy fourteenth century heroine, names herself Alyce, choosing the name because it "sounded clean and friendly and smart. You could love someone named Alyce." From that point on, she goes about acquiring the traits she ascribes to her chosen alias. She has, as well, defeated her inner voices of self-disgust, learned to "try and risk and fail and try again and not give up" and finally, has her dream of "a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in the world."
- The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, May 1995 (Vol. 48, No. 9) by Deborah Stevenson: The book's brevity and simplicity also commend it to older readers who find the era intriguing but are intimidated by more epic tales of medieval life. Cushman adds an historical note about midwifery, which includes mention of the maternal and child mortality that never appears in the story itself. This is an offbeat, well-crafted story; fans of the author's first book will enjoy it.
Connections:
- Other books by author Karen Cushman:
Catherine, Called
Birdy ISBN: 9780064405843
The Ballad of Lucy
Whipple ISBN: 9780064406840
Matilda Bone ISBN:
9780395881569
Grayling’s Song
ISBN: 978-0544301801
- Students could learn more about author Karen Cushman at her website: www.karencushman.com
- Teachers can use this Discussion guide .pdf: http://www.karencushman.com/pdfs/DG_midwife.pdf
Bibliography
Cover, Mount
Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. September 27, 2016.
Cushman, Karen. The Midwife’s Apprentice. New York:
Clarion Books, 1995. 0395692296
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