Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village (2007)

What an odd assortment of really great ideas, a whole curriculum really, on the medieval days, combined with a drama that a whole class can perform, and some great illustrations. The only thing marring this from being perfect is the writing which tries to be poetry and fails. ( )

Series of dramatic poems from the point of view of young adults in a medieval village. I enjoyed them quite a bit, although I felt in several poems that Schlitz was projecting a very modern point of view onto her characters. (Feb. 2008) ( )

I realized recently that I've gotten out of touch with children's books in recent years, so I decided my new project would be reading the Newbery Medal and Honor Books in reverse order, starting with this year's winners. After just the first book, I knew this had been a good idea.

The author teaches in what sounds like a really neat school, where the kids were studying the Middle Ages. She wrote these dramatic monologues (a few are parallel monologues for two actors) featuring the young inhabitants of a medieval village, so that each child could be the star of a playlet. The book also includes sidenotes and occasional two-page essays on aspects of medieval life. Schlitz doesn't sugarcoat some of the more repellent features of the Middle Ages, but her characters have a universality that would help young readers and actors see what they and the medieval young people have in common. This was a really good choice for the medal, and different when compared to the usual novel or occasional non-fiction title. Although, in theory, illustrations are not considered as part of the judging process (there's the Caldecott Medal for that), Robert Byrd's illustrations are an integral part of this book and have a lovely medieval feel to them. I would recommend this for teachers, home-schoolers, and anyone old or young who's interested in the period. ( )

I'll probably get comments from strangers on this, demanding I explain myself.

I don't think this should have gotten the Newbery medal.
I know I've ranted about the Newbery committee in the past, how they pick feel-good books with more emotional growth than plot development. And I know that the Newbery medal is for excellence in writing in children's books, not for engrossing material that kids will eat up with spoons. But they consistently choose books with more adult appeal than kid-appeal, books that well-meaning adults praise as "brilliant" or "insightful" while the intended audience (kids) is bored silly, and this is another of those books.

It's a good book, well-researched and presented in an engaging manner. The monologues and dialogues are a good way to introduce kids to medieval history. This isn't a book kids are going to stumble on and pick up as a pleasure read. It practically has "SCHOOL" written all over it. I think it's an excellent book to have in a school curriculum, and when the kids encounter it in history class, they'll really enjoy it. It is fairly dynamic, not the usual boring presentation of facts.

The writing is mostly okay--inconsistencies in style can be chalked up to different characters having different voices, but it's still jarring to have five or six voices in a row be in virtually indistinguishable verse, then switch to prose for one, then to rhyming verse. The sections in verse are a little clumsy; a stanza or two will be in a strict, regular iambic quadrameter, and then there's a line that's too short or too long, or stressed or unstressed in all the wrong places. It wouldn't trip the ear if not for the regularity of the rhythm preceding it.

Overall impressions: great book for school unit on medieval history. Excellent choice for facilitating class discussions, or for sparking an interest in further research in motivated students. Few kids will pick this up on their own, and for the ones that do, the uneven writing will discourage several from finishing.

3.5 stars, if I could. ( )

A lovely collection of monologues that tell the human stories of young people living in a 13th century medieval village -- the Half Wit, the Knight's son, the Varlet's daughter, etc. Each compelling in its own right, they merge to form something larger than the sum of the parts. Beautifully illustrated, beautifully written, a book to be savored and re-read by adults and teens alike. The collection is reminiscent of Edgar Lee Masters' "Spoon River Anthology." ( )