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Cushman, Karen. The Midwife's Apprentice. New York: Clarion Books, 1995.
Plot Summary: A young girl who knows herself only as Brat is all alone in the world. About twelve years old, she keeps herself alive by stealing and begging food. She buries herself in dung piles to keep warm while she sleeps. In the small village in England during the Middle Ages where the story takes place, local boys tease her and call her "dung beetle."
One morning Jane Sharp, the midwife, finds her and takes Brat on as helper in exchange for a little food and shelter. The midwife is tough, mean, greedy, and stingy. She works the girl hard and gives her no more than she has to keep her alive. The girl makes friends with a cat who she names Purr, and feeds and protects from the village boys. One day the girl begins to value herself enough to give herself a real name, and starts asking others to call her Alyce, too. Alyce learns to gather and prepare herbs and much more about the midwife's work. She begins to feel respect from others, especially after she helps Joan, the bailiff's...
Alyce meets a little boy, who she helps find the name of Edward, and advises him to go to the manor for work so he can survive. When she fails in her first difficult delivery, Alyce feels disgraced, and runs away from the village. A short distance away she comes to an Inn where she finds work as a valuable helper to the innkeeper's wife. There she meets Magisteer Reese who teaches her a bit of reading. When the midwife comes to the Inn to give information about her trade for the encyclopedia Reese is writing, she says, for Alice to hear, "I need an apprentice... who can try and risk and fail and try again and not "try again," with the midwife. If she succeeds she has a chance to be a valuable part of society and no longer an outcast.
Major concepts:
1. Realizing the importance of seeing self-worth
2. Learning that an outcast can become a valuable asset to society
Learning that it is important to learn to fail and try again
Learning to overcome fear and…
Bibliography
http://www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/midwife.htm (April1, 2002).
Sense of Her Own Worth. http://www.sct.org/stage/p_midwife5.html (March31, 2002).
To Be Someone: Words of Wisdom from Women Writers. http://www.sct.org/stage/p_midwife4.html http://www.sct.org/stage/p_midwife4.html (March 31, 2002).
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