Matilda Bone

Newberry medalist Karen Cushman assembles a cast of unforgettable characters in a fascinating and pungent setting: the medical quarter of a medieval English Village. To Blood and Bone Alley, home of leech, barber-surgeon, and apothecary, comes Matilda, raised by a priest to be pious and learned, and now destined to assist Red Peg the Bonesetter. To Matilda's dismay, her work will not involve Latin or writing, but lighting the fire, going to market, mixing plasters and poultices, and helping Peg treat patients. Appalled by her new surroundings, Matilda yearns for the days at the manor when all she did was study and pray. Lonely and misunderstood, she seems destined for a fate as tragic as that of any of the sharp-toungued saints she show more turns to for advice. show less

Interesting but not enjoyable. I disliked Matilda at the beginning for being so limp and priggish - then I began to seriously dislike Father L for messing her up so badly. What did he have in mind, or did he even think about her future? Happy ending (or at least hopeful), eventually, but it was a real slog getting there. The stuff about medieval medicine was interesting - mostly I knew it, but as dry facts. Having characters live it made it much richer. Glad I read it, I might read more by her, but I don't think I'll ever want to reread this.

A good story, in a really interesting setting -- a medical practitioner's alley in a medieval town. I'm astonished that everyone puts up with Matilda's obnoxious upbringing, but I love that they do. They treat her with kindness, and show her a different way, and Matilda eventually blossoms.

I listened to audiobook but I also own a physical copy because I love this story.

"Sometimes I feel like a duck living with chickens. I look different, I quack different, I walk different. I use to think there was something wrong with the chickens. But lately I am wondering if it is me.”

“you may not be this or that but use the tools you do have. What you know, what you have learned… use it, value it, it is your wealth.”

“…the saints would not be telling her what life she should live and how she should live it. She should make her own decisions and her own way.”

Peg’s trusted that Matilda would learn, she was not judgmental."
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I loved this book for it’s support of a person's discovery of themselves and show more their aloneness and individual strength. show less

Matilda grew up in a manor house, where the only work expected of her was to assist Father Leufredus, the priest, in his studies. She knows Latin and some Greek, the names and stories of hundreds of saints, and how to be meek and obedient. None of this helps her much when Father Leufredus is called to London, and apprentices Matilda to a bone setter named Red Peg in a town halfway between London and Oxford. Peg is full of good humor and common sense, but all Matilda can see is how different she is from the priest and his teachings. Can Matilda look beyond her preconceptions and find a place in her new life?

I typically like Cushman’s historical fiction, but Matilda is a difficult character to love. She does soften up a bit by the end, show more but reading about her self-imposed misery for most of the book is not a lot of fun. And, while I liked some of the secondary characters, I had trouble keeping them straight. Recommended only to those who can’t get enough of Cushman’s writing. show less

a wonderful book introducing the middle ages to children but, really, to anyone. Cushman does a good job of animating the everyday life of a person in medieval England and has truly done her research on just about every aspect of medieval life but focused on medicine and religion.

surprisingly, this book teaches critical thinking and confronts overly pious and zealous attitudes with enthusiasm. Matilda Bone was raised in a minor noble's manor by a priest who is delivered to a bonesetter named Peg who lives on Blood and Bone Alley in a small village. at first, she is disdainful to the extreme of all the lower class people who work for a living thinking that prayers to saints and deference paid to haughty personages like Master Theobald, show more the local physician who really knows nothing, is the only proper way to live your life and solve problems. she eventully comes round to see that knowledge and work like Peg and the other villagers do is not unworthy and that her mentor, Father Leufedus, was not the font of infallible information.

a great book for kids to learn about the middle ages, living life humbly and gratefully, class prejudice, and thinking for yourself. show less

I liked this, though I found it fairly heavy-handed. Young Matilda has been raised by a priest to be humble but learned in Latin, to be obedient and not to question, to be a priggish pain in the tush, in other words. She's suddenly sent to live with Red Peg the Bonesetter, and oh, how Matilda hates this new life where Latin isn't important, and God is about love instead of punishment, and where the unschooled and the ignorant help people in distress. Heavy-handed, but sweet and well-researched and worth reading.