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MATILDA BONE

Name: MATILDA BONE
Author: Karen Cushman
ISBN: 0-395-88156-0

by Karen Cushman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 16, 2000

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In a carefully researched novel set in the medieval period, the author of The Midwife’s Apprentice (1996 Newbery winner) depicts another vivid heroine, left alone to make her place in the world. Having been raised motherless in a fine manor under the tutelage of Father Leufredus, Matilda has learned to read and write Greek and Latin and to pray seven times a day. When the priest leaves her with Red Peg, the bonesetter in Blood and Bone Alley, Matilda disapproves of her new home, her new “mentor” and the requirements of her new job . . . which include tending the fire, cooking, restraining patients, and helping set bones rather than reading, writing, and praying. Gradually Matilda sees the truth: that Father Leufredus will never return, that he never spoke of God’s love, and that she was lonely in her former home. She acknowledges the goodness of those who make up her new community, especially the strong women like Peg, with their clever fingers and common sense, whose lives are hard but who laugh more than they frown . . . women who contrast with the men whom Matilda has been conditioned to hold in deference. At the conclusion Matilda comes to terms with the fact that she cannot predict her own future but “. . . whatever it was she believed she could do.” This has much to commend it: a robust setting, the author’s deft way with imagery (Peg’s decent face is “beslobbered with freckles”) and an impressive command of medieval medical detail. It is laced with humor, in part due to the structural connective tissue formed by the saint’s scornful answers to Matilda’s unceasing prayerful pleas. But in the end, Matilda herself comes off, as the saints themselves conclude, as a rather tiresome prig whose journey towards self-discovery, while rich in incident, may not hold quite enough overall plot tension to compel every reader. (Fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2000

ISBN: 0-395-88156-0

Page Count: 166

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION | CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING

- BOOK REVIEW
WHEN SALLY O'MALLEY DISCOVERED THE SEA
by Karen Cushman

- BOOK REVIEW
WAR AND MILLIE MCGONIGLE
by Karen Cushman

- BOOK REVIEW
GRAYLING'S SONG
by Karen Cushman

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BACH'S BIG ADVENTURE

by Sallie Ketcham ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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PLB 0-531-33140-7 Ketcham’s first book is based on an allegedly true story of a childhood incident in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach. It starts with a couple of pages regaling the Bach home and all the Johanns in the family, who made their fame through music. After his father’s death, Johann Sebastian goes to live with his brother, Johann Christoph, where he boasts that he is the best organist in the world. Johann Christoph contradicts him: “Old Adam Reincken is the best.” So Johann Sebastian sets out to hear the master himself. In fact, he is humbled to tears, but there is hope that he will be the world’s best organist one day. Johann Sebastian emerges as little more than a brat, Reincken as more of a suggestion than a character. Bush’s illustrations are most transporting when offering details of the landscape, but his protagonist is too impish to give the story much authority. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: March 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-531-30140-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Orchard

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION | CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

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I WAS ONCE A MONKEY

STORIES BUDDHA TOLD

by Jeanne M. Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1999

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A book of the basic teachings of Buddha, presented through a collection of six classic, simple tales. When a monkey takes refuge from a monsoon in a cave, he happens upon a group of bickering animals—a monkey, lion, turtle, jackal, and dove. Before the fighting becomes too fierce, a small statue of Buddha begins to glow in the darkest corner. To pass the time—and to stop the fighting—wise Buddha spins enlightening stories of tolerance, endurance, sagacity, truthfulness, kindness, and clarity. Buddha recounts his past lives in many forms—from monkey to pigeon to willow tree—to his captive listeners. Such straightforward yet profound tales combine with the art and design for an example of bookmaking that is aesthetically pleasing in every way. Color-washed linoprints cleverly distinguish the stories from the black-and-white narrative frame, while an informative afterword offers brief background detail about Buddha and these six “birth stories” known as Jatakas. (Picture book/folklore. 4-7)