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Midwife's Apprentice
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From: Ginny Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 09:55:00 -600
Like Nina, I spent time with The Midwife's Apprentice during the weekend. My second reading of this slim volume yielded new impressions. I was not disappointed in re-reading it. Actually, I think The Midwife's Apprentice will sustain repeated readings.
I was struck by the details of ordinary life, especially the foods - from the beginning when Brat/Beetle needed to scrounge for scraps to each setting in which the story takes place.
Readers catch glimpses of early 14th century life within several rural communities of workers: village, fair, inn and manor. The sheepshearing scene during Alyce's visit with Edward at the manor adds another setting. I'm amazed at how much life detail Cushman was able to include as Alyce moved from setting to setting, but - for me
- the story never seemed to "bog down" or get stuck in historical details. Although midwifery is pictured under several circumstances, it's important to acknowledge that although there are hints about childbirth, it is not detailed in the same way as midwifery. I appreciate Cushman's restraint in not detailing childbirth from the laboring women's perspectives.
Although I could make many other observations, I'll close by commenting - as many of you have done - on the sequence of incidents revealing Alyce's internal development. Alyce is shown as dreaming three times, I recall: on page 39, "The pope came to the village and called her Alyce and the king married the midwife and the cat laughed;" on page 60 when she dreams of her mother; and on page 114 when she dreams of childbirth in terms of future generations, A Future. Alyce learns from Will (p. 85) that "Just because you don't know everything don't mean you know nothing." On page 108, the voices of the adults with whom she's had contact recap some of the ways she's been seen by others; she then realizes one thing she wants in addition to "a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world" (page 81). Alyce wants to see herself and be seen - as trying. Readers witness Alyce's discovery of imagination, story and song. On page 111 her laugh is born.
However, for me the most powerful images of Alyce's growth are shown to readers through her acts of naming. On page 11 - at the very beginning - she gave Jane a last name, and she had good reasons for choosing Sharp, just as she did when she named the cat (Purr), the boy (Edward) and Girtle's calf (Rosebud). And names have other significance. Names have a history: we read on page 111 that the month of June was named for Juno, "the Roman goddess of the moon, of women and of childbirth." Names anchor past events, even forgotten ones: the inn would be known The Cat and The Cheese. Alyce has left a mark on local history.
I'll leave it to others in CCBC-NET to comment on Alyce's evolution from illiteracy to literacy and the way Cushman has Magister Reece teach letters and words to Purr (p. 79+) and, thus, to Alyce. Such an important dimension of the book handled in an understated way.
I'll conclude this message by asking if you find Alyce's capacity for playing a Big Trick on the villagers (the chapter "The Devil" (p. 46+) credible, regardless of how accomplished that chapter is in conveying the rampant superstition of this time and place. Maybe she could have accomplished her trick near the end of the book, but was it something she would have had the nerve to do at that point in the story? ... Ginny
****************************************************************** Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall, 600 N. Park St. University of Wisconsin - Madison Madison, WI 53706 USA Fax: 6-8&2I33
Received on Mon 27 Nov 1995 09:55:00 AM CST
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 09:55:00 -600
Like Nina, I spent time with The Midwife's Apprentice during the weekend. My second reading of this slim volume yielded new impressions. I was not disappointed in re-reading it. Actually, I think The Midwife's Apprentice will sustain repeated readings.
I was struck by the details of ordinary life, especially the foods - from the beginning when Brat/Beetle needed to scrounge for scraps to each setting in which the story takes place.
Readers catch glimpses of early 14th century life within several rural communities of workers: village, fair, inn and manor. The sheepshearing scene during Alyce's visit with Edward at the manor adds another setting. I'm amazed at how much life detail Cushman was able to include as Alyce moved from setting to setting, but - for me
- the story never seemed to "bog down" or get stuck in historical details. Although midwifery is pictured under several circumstances, it's important to acknowledge that although there are hints about childbirth, it is not detailed in the same way as midwifery. I appreciate Cushman's restraint in not detailing childbirth from the laboring women's perspectives.
Although I could make many other observations, I'll close by commenting - as many of you have done - on the sequence of incidents revealing Alyce's internal development. Alyce is shown as dreaming three times, I recall: on page 39, "The pope came to the village and called her Alyce and the king married the midwife and the cat laughed;" on page 60 when she dreams of her mother; and on page 114 when she dreams of childbirth in terms of future generations, A Future. Alyce learns from Will (p. 85) that "Just because you don't know everything don't mean you know nothing." On page 108, the voices of the adults with whom she's had contact recap some of the ways she's been seen by others; she then realizes one thing she wants in addition to "a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world" (page 81). Alyce wants to see herself and be seen - as trying. Readers witness Alyce's discovery of imagination, story and song. On page 111 her laugh is born.
However, for me the most powerful images of Alyce's growth are shown to readers through her acts of naming. On page 11 - at the very beginning - she gave Jane a last name, and she had good reasons for choosing Sharp, just as she did when she named the cat (Purr), the boy (Edward) and Girtle's calf (Rosebud). And names have other significance. Names have a history: we read on page 111 that the month of June was named for Juno, "the Roman goddess of the moon, of women and of childbirth." Names anchor past events, even forgotten ones: the inn would be known The Cat and The Cheese. Alyce has left a mark on local history.
I'll leave it to others in CCBC-NET to comment on Alyce's evolution from illiteracy to literacy and the way Cushman has Magister Reece teach letters and words to Purr (p. 79+) and, thus, to Alyce. Such an important dimension of the book handled in an understated way.
I'll conclude this message by asking if you find Alyce's capacity for playing a Big Trick on the villagers (the chapter "The Devil" (p. 46+) credible, regardless of how accomplished that chapter is in conveying the rampant superstition of this time and place. Maybe she could have accomplished her trick near the end of the book, but was it something she would have had the nerve to do at that point in the story? ... Ginny
****************************************************************** Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall, 600 N. Park St. University of Wisconsin - Madison Madison, WI 53706 USA Fax: 6-8&2I33
Received on Mon 27 Nov 1995 09:55:00 AM CST
