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This title in other formats:Other titles in the Waldo series:Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Villageby Laura Amy Schlitz and Robert Byrd
AwardsWinner of the 2008 Newbery Medal
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating twenty-two unforgettable characters. Maidens, monks, and millers' sons — in these pages, readers will meet them all. There's Hugo, the lord's nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar; sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling live eels; and the peasant's daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord. There's also mud-slinging Barbary (and her noble victim); Jack, the compassionate half-wit; Alice, the singing shepherdess; and many more. With a deep appreciation for the period and a grand affection for both characters and audience, Laura Amy Schlitz creates twenty-two riveting portraits and linguistic gems equally suited to silent reading or performance. Illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by Robert Byrd — inspired by the Munich-Nuremberg manuscript, an illuminated poem from thirteenth-century Germany — this witty, historically accurate, and utterly human collection forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England. Review:"Schlitz (The Hero Schliemann) wrote these 22 brief monologues to be performed by students at the school where she is a librarian; here, bolstered by lively asides and unobtrusive notes, and illuminated by Byrd's (Leonard, Beautiful Dreamer) stunningly atmospheric watercolors, they bring to life a prototypical English village in 1255. Adopting both prose and verse, the speakers, all young, range from the half-wit to the lord's daughter, who explains her privileged status as the will of God. The doctor's son shows off his skills ('Ordinary sores/ Will heal with comfrey, or the white of an egg,/ An eel skin takes the cramping from a leg'); a runaway villein (whose life belongs to the lord of his manor) hopes for freedom after a year and a day in the village, if only he can calculate the passage of time; an eel-catcher describes her rough infancy: her 'starving poor [father] took me up to drown in a bucket of water.' (He relents at the sight of her 'wee fingers' grasping at the sides of the bucket.) Byrd, basing his work on a 13th-century German manuscript, supplies the first page of each speaker's text with a tone-on-tone patterned border overset with a square miniature. Larger watercolors, some with more intricate borders, accompany explanatory text for added verve. The artist does not channel a medieval style; rather, he mutes his palette and angles some lines to hint at the period, but his use of cross-hatching and his mostly realistic renderings specifically welcome a contemporary readership. Ages 10-up." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"Brilliant in every way." Kirkus Reviews Review:"Schlitz gives teachers a refreshing option for enhancing the study of the European Middle Ages: here are seventeen monologues and two dialogues that collectively create a portrait of life on an English manor in 1255." The Horn Book Synopsis:Inspired by an illuminated poem from 13th-century Germany, this witty, historically accurate collection--the winner of the 2008 Newbery Medal--forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England. Full color.
About the AuthorLaura Amy Schlitz is the author of The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug Up Troy and A Drowned Maiden's Hair. She wrote the pieces in Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! for students at the Park School in Baltimore, where she works as a librarian. She has also worked as a storyteller, a costumer, an actress, and a playwright; her plays for young people have been produced in theaters all over the country. Laura Amy Schlitz lives in Baltimore. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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