Adam of the Road

"A road's a kind of holy thing..."

Adam of the Road is a 1942 Newbery Honor book, and tells the story of a young boy in thirteenth-century England. While travelling with his minstrel father Roger, Adam becomes separated from Roger and from his beloved dog Nick, and spends the rest of the story searching for them. His adventures give the reader a taste of a wide variety of professions and lifestyles in medieval England. We follow Adam as he sings in great houses, works as a farmer's boy, falls in with the wrong kind of minstrels, is robbed by bandits, visits St. Giles's Fair, watches a mystery play, sees life at the University, and more.

Twining his experiences together are Adam's songs and tales that he tells as a minstrel. He wants to show more be a minstrel like his father, and learns one of his father's primary lessons as he travels: he must learn to fit his song to his audience. Along the way he also starts maturing as a person.

This is a somewhat sanitized version of the Middle Ages. Gray mentions how Adam's father Roger avoids all the rude and crass fabliaux that characterized many minstrels of the time, instead preferring the French romances about courtly love and heroism. As he travels, Adam finds that people are generally kind and even the poorest will take you in for a meal and bandage up your head after you fall. I did like how Adam never does get his harp back the last time, and has to learn to play the bagpipes instead (which is hardly ideal for a minstrel who plays to accompany himself singing).

For the most part, the crueler aspects of medieval life are muted. There was a moment when Adam wonders if a noblewoman destined for an arranged marriage wants to marry the knight her father has chosen, and another boy says that she's just a girl and has to obey. Adam compares this to the tales of courtly love and honor paid to ladies in the romances, and wonders how the two ideas can coexist. But it is just a passing thought and never takes over the story (as in some agenda-driven tales). Perhaps it is not so much that the medieval world was idealized, but that we are seeing it through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy. He probably wouldn't understand all the crass or harsher parts of life, and so for him they did not exist.

There are several loose ends left at the story's conclusion. We never get back to Jill and John Ferryman. What happens to Agnes and Margery? Why doesn't Jankin get a better comeuppance? What is Squire Simon's fate, and is Emilie happy in her arranged marriage? I guess this is true to life... we touch so many people in passing and never learn what becomes of them in later life.

This is a well-written story and I recommend it. show less

I've owned this since I acquired it as a library discard when I was in junior high, and that's when I last read it. I'd really forgotten all details of the story.

This Newberry Award winner from 1943 follows Adam, an 11-year-old minstrel, son of a minstrel named Roger. As the book starts, Adam is being educated in an abbey, eager for his father to return from what is essentially a business trip to France. He loves his spaniel Nick and his harp best of all things in the world. When Roger returns, they set off on a road trip. Another minstrel steals Nick, and when father and son set off in pursuit, they are soon separated. Adam spends months on his own, meeting a variety of people around England in 1294.

Foremost, I was surprised by the show more wealth of medieval details worked into the book. Gray's research was immense, and she gracefully incorporates everything. This is also very much a boy's adventure book. Girls and women have almost no roles, and Adam regards all girls with outright disdain after one thinks cats are better than dogs. The ending feels weirdly tidy and abrupt. I do adore the Robert Lawson illustrations throughout--he's one of my favorite illustrators and authors of this period.

I don't think this is a book I need to keep on my shelf after thirty years, but it was good to read it again. show less

This book provides a classical setting and makes you appreciate the ability to use a cell phone and access your bank account from anywhere. I thought Adam was a fine character. As an eleven-year-old, Adam is probably more mature and well-behaved than is possible, but the overall goodness in him is clear. He's loyal to friends (and animals) and works on forgiving those who hurt him and doesn't hold grudges, even when doing so might teach him about not trusting people right away. Reading this book reminded me much of Pinocchio as it's a road tale where moral character is formed and tested even when falling into the wrong crowd. This book has fewer overt lessons, but they are there.

While I enjoyed the book overall, and reading it was quick show more and fun, the plot is what I liked least about it. There are, indeed, moments of character growth and plot, but there's so much walking and Adam thinking about his dad and his dog. The repetitive nature diminished my joy of the book. There's also too little in the character growth of Adam. One of the major plot points that made me pick up the book was a sponsor for Adam to attend Oxford (back in ye ol' day), and it's hardly considered and brushed off even by Adam's father, who also might be a secret villain of the story.

I think the book is best read by a pre-teen, early teen who enjoys the setting and is ok with reading a rather long page count book without major action points. A fine book but not a favorite. Final Grade - B- show less

Even though, as a child, I tended to avoid Newbery books, and even now am really not a fan of historical fiction, I did enjoy this several times then, and again this time, for Dec. 2015 Newbery: GR Children's Books. ?áOne thing that struck me this time was just how old the setting for this is. ?á Way before Shakespeare! ?áMy other observations/ book darts this time:



"If thou has a sorrow,
Tell it not to thy foe,
But whisper it to thy saddle-bow
And ride forth singing."

And I think some of the tidbits of history are fascinating, as at an inn: "Minstrels.... Good. I'm not ready to sleep and we can't read unless we pay for candles."

And there's humor. A self-important little girl named Agnes prompts Adam to think: "Her name meant lamb show more of God... but to Adam she was just a silly sheep, and not a sheep of God either."

And since Candlemas Day is Feb. 2, is this the origin of the Groundhog Day tradition?

"If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight."?á " show less

I remembered this from my younger years so was glad to find it again to read to my son. We both loved it. This boy who searches all over to find his dog and his father, and has a bit role for a horse. Now to pass it on to grandkids who are infatuated with medieval times; this will give them a new aspect to try out, instead of only thinking of kings & queens (or robbers...

Adam is a young minstrel, son of a minstrel, in medieval England. He loves his father, Roger, his dog, Nick, and being a minstrel. We meet the characters and go along with them for a good third of the book before Adam becomes separated both from his dog and his dad. Nick is stolen, and in the chase to catch the dog-napper, he loses his father as well. The rest of the book is Adam's quest to find at least one, but preferably both members of his family. Each chapter is its own small adventure, and we definitely are given a view of the middle ages through heavily rose-tinted glasses.

I had mixed feelings about this one. Definitely enjoyed it more than most Newbery winners as old as this (1942 copyright), so it holds up better than some. show more Adam was a likable protagonist too. But the tale didn't seem have much of a point beyond just following Adam around England hunting for his father and dog. He didn't really learn any lessons, or become a better person. So, while an entertaining enough book, it felt sort of empty at the end. Enjoyable, but probably forgettable. show less

One of my favorite cliches in children’s books is how the protagonist always seems to run into these fantastically nice people who want to help them accomplish whatever it is the protagonist wants to do. Need to cross a river? Take my seat, young sir! Lost your dog and father? Come travel with me on my dime and we’ll search for them together– and I won’t even ask you for anything in return! It’s very sweet and optimistic, and I like that.

There are a few baddies, of course, including one minstrel who steals Adam’s dog and another group who resort to theft in order to feed themselves, but they’re never any really big threat to Adam himself. Instead, I think they’re more used as a moral, uh, thingy, prodding Adam further show more along on his path to be a Good Person, show less