The Midwife's Apprentice (1995)

Engaging story of a 13th century homeless waif who winds up living with a midwife and learning the trade. ( )

Picked this up for the girls -- it's a Newberry medal winner -- and wound up quite enjoying it myself. ( )

The girl hasn't had a name or a home until the midwife found her in the dung heap, keeping warm. The midwife, Jane, is no saint but she does take the girl in, calling her Beetle or Brat, or worse, making her work hard for her keep and not letting her really learn how to birth babies. Can the girl make a place for herself in this world?

There seems to be a certain type of book that appeals to adults who give out awards to kids but that I question whether kids would ever pick up on their own, and this is one of them. The main trouble is, though it is a short book, not much happens. It's much more about the girl - who names herself Alyce - and her growth than any story arc or even one event that happens in her life. Some of the interactions are so subtle I doubt a young reader would pick up on it, like why the boys who tease Beetle eventually leave Alyce alone. It's set in the Middle Ages, and the author has clearly done her research on medicine and midwifery of that time period. But all in all, it was a little boring. ( )

NA

This book is a children's novel that won a nobel prize in 1996 and is around the medieval England era. The Midwife’s Apprentice is the story of the main girl who was homeless who ends up falling in love with a rich man. They marry each other, and she becomes his midwife. The problem in this story is she doesn't know how to do any house duties. She struggles to learn how to cook and clean. She never knew how to do anything because all she knew was how to live out in the street. This book gives the message about maintaining hope when there are a lot of failures. ( )