Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!

Book: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Audience: Grades 4 to 6
In a Nutshell: vignettes on medieval life for one or two readers

And the Newbery goes to... a collection of 17 short portraits of young people living in a medieval English village. Mostly written in different poetic forms, and all intended to be read aloud as monologues or two-person vignettes. The word portraits are simply illustrated in the style of a medieval illumination or tapestry, and interspersed with simple introductions to related historical topics such as Pilgrimage, the Crusades, and Falconry. A full stratum of society is represented, from the lord's daughter to the miller's son to the village half-wit. The characters and their stories often overlap or interact with the the one right before or after, but there is not an overarching story- more like a poetic cycle that gives an overall picture when taken together.

The book does an excellent job of combining historical facts and effective, three-dimensional characters fleshed out in very few words. As this year's Newbery winner it seemed to come out of left field for many fans of kid lit (as they often do), but I see what the Newbery Committee was thinking. It stands out in terms of quality of writing, facts, illustrations, and physical layout. As oral monologues I think some are more accessible than others for a grade school reader, but that's not a requirement for handing out Newberys. Enough of the characters' poems are accessible that many young readers will find at least a few they like. And if the shiny medal on the cover, which makes it a shoe-in for school library shelves around the country, starts a revival of readers theater in history and English classrooms around the country, then good for the author.