The Midwife's Apprentice -Genre 5

Bibliography

Cushman, Karen. 1996. The Midwife’s Apprentice. Narrated by Jenny Sterlin. Prince Frederick ,Maryland: Recorded Books, Inc. 1996. ISBN 1-4025-2320-3.

Plot Summmary

The story begins with an an orphan in the 14th century in medieval England. The orphan doesn’t even know her name. Everyone calls her “Brat” at the beginning. She is sleeping near a heap of dung when the Midwife Jane finds her. She calls her “Beetle” which is short for dungbeetle. She is hungry and begs Jane to let her work for food. Beetle befriends a cat that she calls “Purr”.
Jane, the midwife is never very nice to Beetle, but she does give her a little food for her work. Beetle observes everything she can while she is working with Jane. She learns to gather herbs and make poultices to help ease the pain for women during childbirth. She is forced to help deliver a baby by herself and she can’t do it and runs away.
She becomes an inn girl. She is still working for food. The midwife comes looking for her. She overhears her say that she was the best apprentice she has had. It is too bad she gave up. In the city someone mistakes her for a girl named Alyce that can read. She changes her name to Alyce. She tells us there are only 3 things she really wants in life.
1. A full belly
2. Contented heart
3. A place in this world
She helps deliver a baby where the husband thought his wife had a stomach worm at the inn. After she delivers the baby she has two offers to stay at the inn, and a gentleman that was teaching her to read and write offers for her to come and take care of his sister. She realizes what she really wants is to become a midwife’s apprentice. She still has much to learn. She goes back to Jane who doesn’t welcome her at first. She has to tell her that she will not leave, or give up before Jane opens to the door to let her back in. Now she has everything she wanted in life.

Critical Analysis

I listened to the unabridged recorded version of this book. It was 2.75 hours long on 3 CD’s. I am a visual learner so it was a little difficult to not have the book in front of me. I listened to it in the car on my drive to my vacation. Jenny Sterlin read with very clear diction. She was the only reader. The sound quality was very clear with no background noise and acceptable volume. There were closing comments that told about the reader. The story seemed to be read with a sadness that was similar to the story. The story was not lively. A strength of listening to it being read was understanding the pronunciation of the vocabulary. Cushman painted a picture of what the 14th century was like. The main character “Brat”/”Beetle”/”Alyce” is introduced as a very frail, hungry child trying to find somewhere warm to sleep. She is picked on by the young boys in the village. She is told that she is stupid and ugly. Her only friend is a cat that she befriends.
She is taken in by a midwife named Jane who is tough and not kind with her words. She is also a very greedy woman. Jane provides her with a place to sleep and food. She begins to learn from Jane.
As Beetle becomes stronger and brave in the story she changes her name to Alyce because “You could love someone named Alyce”. Alyce learns to read and write. She does become afraid and runs away, but realizes that becoming a midwife is what she wants to become and goes back to continue being an apprentice under Jane. This is her place in this world.

Review Excerpt(s)

Kliatt (Sue Rosenzweig) : "This Newbery Award-winning book is given the marvelous performance in British English that it well deserves. In a multivoiced narration, Sterlin reads with such meaning, clarity, and impeccable diction that even unfamiliar vocabulary becomes accessible."

Recorded Books: "Lyrical yet unsentimental, The Midwife’s Apprentice won the coveted 1996 Newbery Medal. Filled with striking characters, it paints unforgettable pictures of village life in the Middle Ages, the midwife’s craft, and a very remarkable girl’s growing independence and pride."

Audiofile (Robin MacFarlane) : "Alice's feelings about being cold, hungry and alone, and the musings that lead to her discovery of confidence and courage"

John Newberry Book Winner 1996

Young Readers Choice Award 1998

Connections:

-Discuss how medicine has changed since medieval times.

-What would the role of the midwife be in modern times compared to medieval times.

-Analyze the vocabulary from the text.

-Write a scene from the story from another person’s point of view. Not Alyce.

-Alyce has met two challenges of becoming a midwife and learning to read/write. Students write about a challenge they have given up on or overcome.