The Whipping Boy [Paperback]

Sid Fleischman (Author), Peter Sis (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

A bratty prince and his whipping boy inadvertently change places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws. The award-winning author of The Midnight Horse blends the comic with the compassionate in this highly memorable novel. 1987 Newbery Award Book.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For kids to get their dose of action and thrills, they need not always go to the local multiplex for the latest bang 'em up film. They could try such books as The Whipping Boy, which relies not on exploding spaceships and demonic robots but mythic story, humorous characters and, ready or not, a moral. The plot involves the orphan Jemmy, who must take the whippings for the royal heir, Prince Brat. Jemmy plans to flee this arrangement until Prince Brat beats him to it, and takes Jemmy along. Jemmy then hears he's charged with the Prince's abduction as this Newbery Medal winning book turns toward a surprising close.

From Publishers Weekly

With his flair for persuading readers to believe in the ridiculous, Fleischman scores a hit with his new creation. Sis's skillful pictures emphasize events in the adventures of the orphan Jemmy, kept in his king's palace to be thrashed for the offenses committed by the royal heir, known as Prince Brat. It is forbidden to punish Brat, whose tricks multiply until Jemmy is tempted to escape the daily round of flogging. But the prince himself takes off and forces the whipping boy to go with him. As they get into and out of trouble on the outside, Jemmy hears that he has been accused of abducting Brat. When the prince arranges for their return to the palace, poor Jemmy fears the worst, but things turn out for the best at the story's satisfying close. Colorful types like a thief called Hold-Your-Nose Billy, Betsy and her dancing bear Petunia, et al., increase the fun.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 90 pages
• Publisher: Troll Communications (1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816710384
• ISBN-13: 978-0816710386
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (152 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #740,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story of Adventure and Friendship Kids Will Love, May 15, 2002

By 

Mark Baker (Santa Clarita, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Whipping Boy (Paperback)

You'd think being plucked from the street to live in the palace would be a dream come true for an orphan. But Jemmy would disagree. He's be given the job of official whipping boy and is punished every time the prince does something wrong. And there's a reason the prince is called "Prince Brat" behind his back.

Jemmy dreams of running away, but is surprised when the prince announces one night that both of them are running away. Before they know it, the outlaw Hold-Your-Nose Billy has kidnapped them. Can Jemmy keep them both alive and get them back to the castle? Or will the oblivious Prince Brat spoil his every plan?

I'd been intrigued by this book for some time, and finally had a chance to read it. The story is quite fun. While I saw the ultimate end coming, there were plenty of fun twists along the way that kept me engaged. And I truly came to care for the characters; I'd love to know what happens to them next.

Kids will love this tale of adventure set in a time long gone, and adults will enjoy sharing it with them. Get this book today for some good family reading time.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great fun, November 18, 2000

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Whipping Boy (Hardcover)

This Newberry Award winning kids book is great good fun in the tradition of The Prince and the Pauper and The Princess Bride. It's the amusing tale of a spoiled heir to the throne, so obnoxious that he's known as Prince Brat, and of Jeremy, the peasant rat-catcher's son, who is drafted into the King's service to stand in for the Prince when he earns a whipping. Of course, having a whipping boy who gets punished in your stead leaves you little incentive to improve your behavior. The Prince is so incorrigible that he hasn't even learned to read and write, though Jeremy has just by overhearing the lessons. When one day the Prince decides to run away, Jeremy follows, figuring he has nothing to lose, since he'll be beaten for it anyway. But things take an unexpectedly nasty turn when the boys are captured by two cutthroats: Cutwater and Hold-Your-Nose Billy. The quick thinking Jeremy is able to convince the bandits that he's the Prince, since after all, he's the one who's literate, and tries to get them to release his compatriot; but the obnoxious Prince is so offended that he refuses to take this means of escape. Gradually, as their misadventures continue, the boys learn to respect and even like one another and all, of course, ends happily.

One thing that occurred to me in reading this story is the way that Anglo-American literature turns the traditional fairy tale of mistaken identity on it's head. The emblematic story of European tradition would be the Frog Prince, wherein the royal personage lies buried beneath a facade, but inevitably is discovered and accedes to his birthright. American stories like this one and Prince and the Pauper have as their premise that the regal upbringing has left the heir somehow unfit to rule and only after experiencing life as a commoner can they rightly ascend to power. The contrast obviously owes much to the underlying political philosophy of the respective cultures--the former supporting the idea of nobility being a function of birth, the latter premised on, if not consent of the ruled, at least a requirement of worthiness on the part of the ruler and an informed understanding of the plight of his subjects.

Kids needn't be concerned with all that though, they can just sit back and enjoy this amusing adventure for it's own sake. We savvy parents will keep the subliminal democratizing message to ourselves.

GRADE: B+

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Whipping Boy is Awesome!, December 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Whipping Boy (Paperback)

I recommend The Whipping Boy. This book was written by Sid Fleischman and received the 1987 John Newberry Medal award.The story is about an orphan,Jemmy who is taken to a palace to be a "Whipping Boy". A whipping boy is a child who gets whipped in place of the prince in the palace. The prince happens to be a spoiled rotten brat and is known throughout the country as "Prince Brat". Needless to say, the poor whipping boy gets whipped a lot. In the book the two very different boys end up running away for different reasons.They are faced with several difficult situations and through their experiences and adventures, their lives are changed evermore.You should read this book because it is very entertaining.