Gentle Brother Edik finds the girl, Beatryce, curled in a stall, wracked with fever, coated in dirt and blood, and holding fast to the ear of Answelica the goat. In a time of war, a mysterious child appears at the monastery of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing. We shall all, in the end, find our way home. Blackall’s black-and-white pencil drawings and ornamented initials convey a medieval setting, while DiCamillo’s elegant, honed prose weaves a beautiful tapestry of true friends, a feisty goat, and a road to a castle where destiny will unfold.įrom the September/October 2021 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.We shall all, in the end, be led to where we belong. 9/13) and two-time Caldecott Medalist Blackall ( Finding Winnie, rev. The pairing of two-time Newbery Medalist DiCamillo ( The Tale of Despereaux, rev. The king’s machinations are effectively delineated in bold font in brief sections to remind readers that evil is afoot.
Soon, however, she must enter the world and, with Brother Edik, Answelica, and the orphan boy Jack Dory, begins a journey to take charge of her own destiny. Brother Edik and the other monks hide Beatryce and her talents as well: the ability to read and write, a “beautiful and agile mind,” and a “dangerous will.” Beatryce, it is revealed, is the girl named in a prophecy, destined to “unseat a king and bring about a great change.” As Brother Edik tells her, “It is dangerous for you to be who you are…And so you must pretend to be someone you are not.” The king and his counselor are on her trail, so she agrees to disguise herself, to have her hair shorn and wear a monk’s robe. The child recovers from her fever but has lost her memory, remembering only her name, Beatryce.
gĪs this rich and absorbing novel opens, Brother Edik finds a sick girl in the barn of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing, curled up with the “demon goat” Answelica. Intermediate, Middle School Candlewick 256 pp.
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