The Midwife's Apprentice

Rating:
Summary: Finding her place in the world
Review: This slim novel begins with a scrawny young girl sleeping in a dung heap. The heroine, who is nameless as well as homeless, uses the dung for heat, a decision that Jane Sharp, the town's midwife, recognizes as a clever one. Jane hires the girl and names her Beetle, for dung beetle.

Beetle is a smart, compassionate girl, but a timid one, too. She allows Jane Sharp to boss her around and the local boys to tease her mercilessly.

Karen Cushman chose the England of the Middle Ages as a setting for the book, and has researched the subject exhaustively. We learn about village life, medicine, feudal structure, and the place of women in that society. Most enjoyable to follow is Beetle's progress from a scared, meek little girl to a self-assured young woman who has chosen her own name: Alyce.

While not romanticizing Alyce's situation, Cushman makes it clear how much more is available to her than to upper class women of her time. At the end of the book, Alyce chooses her own future from several options. She selects the life that will allow her the most independence. With a name and a career of her own choosing, Alyce has come far indeed from the dung heap.

Rating:
Summary: Without a Man in Medieval Times Women Had Few Choices
Review: Jane, the midwife, discovers Brat sleeping in a dung heap to draw warmth from its chemical reactions. She takes the girl on as an apprentice because she's cheap labor and no competition to her greedy nature.

Jane dubs the girl Beetle and thought her to be stupid; but soon discovers that Beetle is more intelligent than she gave her credit for. Beetle soon adopts the name of Alyce. Alyce impresses the villagers and is called to assist in a birthing but lacks the confidence and experience to deliver the child and sends for Jane. Alyce runs away in shame but her days as a midwife are far from over.

It was clear that Karen Cushman did a lot of research for she captured the time as well as someone who'd lived it. It really brings home the subjugation of women and how little opportunities manless women had. The book left me wanting more of Alyce's story, like did she marry Will? I took this out of the library but have added it to my wishlist for my private collection.

Rating:
Summary: Kids, don't try this at home
Review: I was very taken with this story. This tale follows the trials and tribulations of a young girl (Beetle) in early medieval times. Finding herself apprenticed to the local midwife, the girl learns the tricks of the trade, even while gaining a little more wit and confidence in herself. The heroine is ignorant at the beginning and, quite realistically, does not suddenly end the book with a head full of knowledge and wisdom in everything she does. The arc of this book is especially remarkable. Following Beetle's successful delivering of a calf she also manages to deliver a baby to a poor woman that the official midwife left. Interestingly, this doesn't mean that Beetle is suddenly endowed with perfect midwifing abilities. Failing to deliver another child, she must rely on her mentor once again, crushing her burgeoning ego. The moral, that nothing is easy and that you must work at what you want, is a good one.

There were some slightly odd moments in the book. The midwife is described as being an envious/jealous type who cannot abide the notion of having a rival. Yet she is overheard later in the book, almost praising the girl's abilities. Still, this is a small quibble. I enjoyed reading about the girl's progress. It would be wonderfully paired with "Crispin: The Cross of Lead". Both stories follow ignorant orphans who learn a new profession and end their stories by going into the respective honest professions they desire. The time periods are not far off either. This book may or may not read aloud well. I don't know. There are some touchy moments (the near rape of Beetle by drunken boys, the midwife's affair with the baker, the well described births) that might make the squeamish (or their parents) uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I found this an important book and one worth remembering.

Rating:
Summary: So you want a kid's p.o.v. on a great read? Here it is.
Review: I highly reccomend this classic story of a young girl's hardships during the wonderful medieval period. Beetle finds herself constantly wandering the country hoping to find merely a piece of bread and a roof to sleep under. One day she happens upon a friendly dung heap. She decides to take advantage of its warmth and shed her presence upon it for the night. Little does she know she has come to the home of the midwife. She wakes to a woman screaming at her and finds herself face to face with Jane Sharp. She soon comes to be the apprentice of this harsh woman, learning the magics of this difficult career. The story tells of Beetle's many adventures and difficulties during this hard time. I found this book a good read containing humor as well as a good dose of reality. This is a great Newberry medal winner recomended for ages 12 and up, but I still liked it and I'm just eleven. Two thumbs up!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Good for Boredom
Review: This book is a great story. It may be confusing with its wording, but it has great themes that stands out.

A girl that is a street rat somehow finds a way to becoming the midwife's apprentice. This book is full of only adventures of the girl. It is great for children but a waste of time if you are an adult.

Rating:
Summary: The Midwife's Apprentice
Review: I really liked the way this book portrayed the period that it was written in. From the filthy surroundings to the bad health care to the extreme superstition, not a detail was missed. This book also shows that with a small chance and a lot of courage, you can make anything out of yourself. Here's how the plot went:

Beetle was living on the street the night she decided to use the dung heap for a bed. The heap provided warmth, and, in the morning, a day's work and some food from the local midwife, Jane Sharp. Soon, that one day turns into months, as Beetle becomes the midwife's apprentice. Eventually, she gets a new name, Alys, and a new status. But all is not well, for failure comes knocking at Alys's door, and instead of facing it, she decides to run away. She goes to an inn, and here, with the help of her cat and a scribe, she learns that she is smart, she is pretty, and that maybe failure her failure wasn't so bad after all.

Rating:
Summary: So you want a kid's p.o.v. on a great read? Here it is.
Review: I highly reccomend this classic story of a young girl's hardships during the wonderful medieval period. Beetle finds herself constantly wandering the country hoping to find merely a piece of bread and a roof to sleep under. One day she happens upon a friendly dung heap. She decides to take advantage of its warmth and shed her presence upon it for the night. Little does she know she has come to the home of the midwife. She wakes to a woman screaming at her and finds herself face to face with Jane Sharp. She soon comes to be the apprentice of this harsh woman, learning the magics of this difficult career. The story tells of Beetle's many adventures and difficulties during this hard time. I found this book a good read containing humor as well as a good dose of reality. This is a great Newberry medal winner recomended for ages 12 and up, but I still liked it and I'm just eleven. Two thumbs up!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: so-so book
Review: This book is a pretty good book. I thought that Beetle was going to become a very good apprentice when I first started to read this book, but once I really got into it my first impression when wrong she turned out to be a GREAT apprentice! The basic plot was that Beetle , an orphan, was taken by a midwife. To be able to stay and eat there she had to do a lot of chores. Beetle soon cracks under the pressure of being an apprentice so then she runs away to work at an inn. But when she gets her confidence back she goes back to the midwife. The character that i thought was most complex is the midwife. She able to lie, cheat, and order people around. She's my least favorite character. Will Russet was my favorite character because he was always sweet and kind to Alyce (beetle) after she helped him out. This book was never boring because there's 50% dialogue and 50% narrative parts. The overall theme of the book that i agree with is that you can have it really good the way you are. Just because you're poor doesn't mean you have it horrible. The grass isn't greener on the other side! I think this book was funny. I liked how she described a lot of things but kept it short and sweet. You pick up hints along the way if you're careful! If you're looking for a great cartrip book or something to read when you're sick I'd recomend this book!
bri

Rating:
Summary: The Midwife's Apprentice
Review: Deftly employing an omniscient third-person narrative, author Karen Cushman introduces us to the main character in her 1996 Newberry Award winning book, "The Midwife's Apprentice." The introduction is dramatic: we meet an adolescent girl, an orphan, searching for a night's shelter in a dung heap. A vividly detailed description of the dung heap follows, affronting our senses. As readers, we are horrified that anyone would be reduced to seek refuge for the night in such a place. Yet, on the same page, we curiously find ourselves admiring her practical observation that a dung heap in fact produces life-saving warmth. We are drawn into her world and begin to see life from her perspective.

When the girl is awakened the next morning by the rude taunting of a group of village boys, the girl encounters the equally harsh questioning of the village midwife. The girl asks the local midwife for work and food after being perfunctorily named "Beetle" by the midwife (after a dung beetle, of course). Thus begins the quietly amazing story of the girl's apprenticeship to the medieval English midwife.

In the author's notes at the end of the book, Cushman gives the reader a brief history of midwifery and a glimpse into everyday medieval life. Cushman so seamlessly weaves this historical information into the narrative, however, that she could almost dispense wih this information at the novel's end altogether. Her knowledge of herbal medicine, medieval folk traditions and history is extensive, as well as the masterful way she uses this information to tell a compelling story of how a young woman grows to discover her own self-worth in an often unforgiving world.

Alyce, as we later come to know the main character, convincingly demonstrates just how resourceful and resilient the human spirit can be. We share in her disappointments as well as her triumphs. Cushman includes a handful of memorable characters that not only help to support the awakening of Alyce's character, but also stand as solid characters in their own right.

Young adult women will undoubtedly relate to Alyce's character as they compare trying emtional situations in their own lives to the challenges faced by Alyce in the book.

Rating:
Summary: The Midwife's Apprentice
Review: The Midwives Apprentice is a great story for all young girls to read. The story teaches girls that if they believe in themselves, they can overcome any obstacle. The main character, Brat, struggles with her own identity and her main purpose in society. Brat is homeless and becomes a helper to an uncaring midwife. When Brat fails to successfully deliver a baby, she is so discouraged and ashamed that she abandons the only place she ever called home. A turning point in Brat's life is when she successfully delivers a baby while working at the inn. She finally begins to have confidence and pride. With this new attitude, Brat is ready to return to her job as a midwife's apprentice confident and capable.