![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
When I was a kid I owned two Karen Cushman books, this one and Catherine, Called Birdy. At the time I didn't like this one as much because Alyce isn't fun and charming like Catherine is. But on rereading it now, I actually really love The Midwife's Apprentice.
Cushman specializes in historical fiction for children set in the Middle Ages, with particular focus on girls. This one is about a girl who becomes a midwife's apprentice, is as perhaps obvious from the title.
Alyce begins the book a rejected and starving orphan child who has never been called anything better than Brat. Over the course of the book Alyce changes name and role multiple times, as she grows up a little and learns more about herself and the world. Nobody in the book is an uncomplicatedly good person (except perhaps Magister Reese!) but Alyce takes from each person and interaction what she needs in order to piece herself together into a person who knows herself and knows what she wants in her life and can stand up for herself and those she cares about.
It's not a book about a person developing close emotional bonds with other people, my usual jam; instead, it's about a person developing a close emotional bond with herself. The arc of the book is about self-determination, and it's really satisfying!
Also this is the 100th book I've read so far in 2020! Only the second time in 13 years I've made it above that barrier! And now I've only gotta read 11 more books this year to beat my all-time best since I first started keeping track of my books. And you know, I think that just might be doable :D
Cushman specializes in historical fiction for children set in the Middle Ages, with particular focus on girls. This one is about a girl who becomes a midwife's apprentice, is as perhaps obvious from the title.
Alyce begins the book a rejected and starving orphan child who has never been called anything better than Brat. Over the course of the book Alyce changes name and role multiple times, as she grows up a little and learns more about herself and the world. Nobody in the book is an uncomplicatedly good person (except perhaps Magister Reese!) but Alyce takes from each person and interaction what she needs in order to piece herself together into a person who knows herself and knows what she wants in her life and can stand up for herself and those she cares about.
It's not a book about a person developing close emotional bonds with other people, my usual jam; instead, it's about a person developing a close emotional bond with herself. The arc of the book is about self-determination, and it's really satisfying!
Also this is the 100th book I've read so far in 2020! Only the second time in 13 years I've made it above that barrier! And now I've only gotta read 11 more books this year to beat my all-time best since I first started keeping track of my books. And you know, I think that just might be doable :D
