Customer Reviews

Matilda Bone

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was so happy when I got this book, because I've been waiting for a new novel from Karen Cushman ever since The Ballad of Lucy Whipple came out, and that was back in 1996. Matilda Bone does not dissapoint. Some professional reviewers have called Matilda whiny and unlikeable, but I disagree. I came to care about Matilda, and watching her learn and grow. In fact, I devoured this book in one setting. The story is about fourteen-year-old Matilda, who was raised on a manor in the Middle Ages after her mother runs off and her father dies. For the most part, her bringing up is handled by a priest who tells her that little more that piety matters. So when she comes to Blood and Bone Alley to work as an apprentice to Red Peg the Bonesetter, she can do little else but believe that since the people she is surrounded by do not pray constantly, they are ungodly. I could understand Matilda's unhappiness - she was torn from the only home she knew, and her extrene religious views were a byproduct of her upbringing. Don't listen to the professional reviewers; I'm a fifteen-year-old reader, and I loved this book!

When (in Medieval England) 14-year-old Matilda is apprenticed to Red Peg, the bonesetter, she feels like a duck among chickens. Raised to read French and Latin, to pray often and mortify the flesh, she suddenly finds herself in a world where literacy is vanishingly rare and not appreciated, where prayer is ignored and the flesh taken seriously. She begins to learn that prayer and religion is not the answer, but down-to-earth action is.

This book is a marvelous window into medieval medicine (if that is not too grand of a word to use for it) and life in general. In it we meet a pompous stargazing doctor, an ill trained but capable woman physician, a leech, a near-sighted apothecary, and a host of others. The author added an interesting appendix on her research into medieval medicine, complete with a short bibliography, should you wish to read more on the subject.

I must confess myself to being somewhat uncomfortable with the author's treatment of medieval Christianity, but I do not believe that her characters acted at all out of character for medieval people. So, I do recommend this short, but fascinating book.

One thing that I find commendable about fiction writers like Karen Cushman is that they bring history to life for young readers. It's one thing to study medieval times in the classroom, but when a young person can absorb that history through the fictional life of a character in a story, history becomes much more interesting. Karen Cushman has always succeeded on that level with her earlier books, and does so in this one also. I think that another reason this new book succeeds is because it offers the story of a character out of her own element. Matilda leaves all that she finds familiar and comfortable, to enter an existence where all her rules of life until now no longer apply. The culture clashes that follow provide the reader with humor, and encourage empathy for Matilda. I bet that each young person who reads this will wonder, "What would I do in that situation?". And with that question in mind, the reader will be hooked on the story of Matilda Bone. What more could an author (or reader) want than that?

Karen Cushman writes a fabulous story about a girl called Matilda Bone, a holy, religious girl who is sent to work with a bonesetter named Red Peg in Blood and Bone Alley. At first, Matilda is repulsed with her work and seeks higher things than setting bones. She wants to meet people with better learning and more knowledge but she soon realizes her place in the alley is important and becomes content with her work. She also learns that there are different kinds of knowledge. I think that Matilda Bone is a good book that is well written with a fast pace and great characters. This book is descriptive and takes readers into Matilda's world and her situations, problems, and worries. I highly recommend this book to preteens because the story can be hard for younger children to understand. Matilda's worries and situations will keep you reading!

Matilda is used to a life of material pleasures. She lives in a manor with Father Leufredus. He has to go to London and Matilda is dropped off at Blood and Bone alley with Red Peg the bonesetter. She is there dubbed Matilda Bone. She instantly hates the new life, for Red Peg doesn't follow any of the rules that Father Leufredus taught her to always obey. She eventually comes to realize that life with Red Peg is better than the life she lived before, for she has friends and people to be with. She realizes that Father Leufredus' rules aren't always the law, and that made me really happy because she was getting really worked up over the fact that Red Peg wasn't perfect.

I loved this book and the topic that it was based around: Medieval medicine. I think Karen Cushman is one of the best authors around, and since Medieval England is a subject that I find very interesting, I have loved all of her books on the subject. I'm currently 13, and this book was definitely below my reading level, but I loved it all the same. It's a book that I think could be read by 5th grade and up. Enjoy!

As an adult that eagerly anticipates each Cushman novel and devours each with delight, "Matilda Bone" should please fans of "Catherine, Called Birdy" and the "Midwife's Apprentice" Cushman excels in female protagonists secure in one world that circumstances thrust into another where they have to learn new skills and new ways of thinking in order to successfully cope and "Matilda" is no exception. Fourteen-year-old Matilda, secure on a medieval English manor,where the manor priest has raised her making her fluent in Latin, writing and religion is suddenly dropped by her respected priest on the doorstep of Peg the Bonesetter, where all her knowledge, piety, and mind-set is of no use in Peg's real world. Matilda prays to her well-known saints to save her, but the saints have no pity and no time for her. How Matilda slowly learns her way around real world London and that book knowledge is no replacement for experience, Cushman presents in her usual realism with a sense of humor style. Cushman is so comfortable with the world of medieval England that the details of life should delight readers rather than putting them off. Some fans of the Harry Potter series might enjoy this book while awaiting for the next book in the series. I thought the book over too soon and wish for the further adventures of Matilda.

Father Leufredus has taught Matilda how to read, speak, and write Latin, how to read and write in English, information about various saints, how to pray in different positions and at several times during the day, how to judge, all about the countless things that are wrong and bad for her, but he hasn't taught her how to listen, to love, to laugh, to dream, or to give of herself. He hasn't taught her what a friend is, or what it feels like to belong. But when he drops her off to apprentice to Red Peg the Bonesetter on Blood and Bone Alley, Matilda's journey to learning how to LIVE life, to find her talents, her heart, her friends, her home - where she belongs - has finally begun.

Fourteen-year-old Matilda has only known a life of learning and prayer when she is sent by her guardian, Father Leufredus, to live in Blood and Bone Alley to be apprentice to Red Peg, the Bonesetter. The world she enters is nothing like the quiet life she left behind. Expectations of her are different as well: Whereas before, she studied Greek, Latin and the lives of saints, she is now expected to tend the fire, barter for goods at the market, and boil and brew Peg's lotions and tonics. She does her best to remain pious, shunning the people she meets, deeming them uneducated and unholy, and longs for her days at the country manor she left behind and for Father Leufredus.

At first, Matilda resists the friendships of patient Peg and the physician Margery, kindhearted Nathanial and loud, earthy Tom. Soon, however, she succumbs to her loneliness and befriends a kitchen maid named Tildy. Little by little, as, in her work, she eases the pain of sweet, long-suffering Sarah and warm, mothering Effie, Matilda learns compassion, sympathy, pity, and mercy. But the largest lesson Matilda learns occurs after Tildy is suddenly injured. To whom must Matilda run? To the proud, well-to-do, and learned Master Theobald, whom Matilda admired for his similarity to Father Leufredus? Or to the simple, hard-working folks of Blood and Bone Alley? Her transformation continues as she makes peace with her new life and her new home, becoming competent in her role as the bonesetter's apprentice and earning the last name "Bone" from her newest friend, Walter Mudd.

Karen Cushman, who earned a Newberry Honor in 1995 for Catherine, Called Birdy, and a Newberry Medal in 1996 for The Midwife's Apprentice, is comfortable writing historical fiction with a medieval backdrop. She gives a clear sense of what life was like in the time, from their daily meals, to their clothing styles. Notably, she writes dialogue that rings true to the time period but sacrifices no reading comprehension. Also to her credit, she creates the self-righteous and unlikable Matilda and makes the reader care for her and want her to grow. Cushman ends the story with an Author's Note that delineates the meticulousness with which the medical practices of the Middle Ages was researched. Once again with Matilda Bone, Cushman provides readers with a vivid window into the life of a young girl in the Middle Ages that will have broad appeal.

Matilda Bone is an interesting story about a girl who studies with a priest. The priest leaves Matilda with a bone setter before he leaves on a trip to London. Matilda is not happy being a bone setter's apprentice. Everything her new mistress does is a sin. But Matilda begins to understand her new life and starts to believe in herself. This is a well written story. Matilda's feelings are believable. I found this book a little too religous, strange and unusual but in the end Matilda came through. Matilda mentions in the book that she is a duck among chickens. In other words very different from the people surrounding her. But only a duck can lay a duck egg. Matilda strives for higher accomplishments but she doesn't know how to do the simplest of things, such as cook, sweep and shop for goods, nor does she try to learn them,which gets very dull after a while. Matilda knows a different world but soon she knows two.

After a gruelling year in school reading classic literature with a dictionary at my side, it was unbelievably refreshing to read something like this book. Having loved Catherine, Called Birdy, it was an obvious pick at the library for me. I thought it would be aimed at a much younger audience but Cushman adapts it very well for young adults as well. Overall it was a good, quick read that accurately explores medicine and medieval life in general. With the perfect mix of humor and heart-touching moments, it is truly a good novel for summer.