This is another earthy/bawdy story of Medieval life with a strong and stubborn female lead by Karen Cushman. This time, a girl named Brat is found sleeping in a dung heap by a village midwife. The shrewd and sharp-tempered midwife takes advantage of the promise of cheap labor, and Brat slowly becomes a midwife’s apprentice as well as haltingly learns her place in the world. While this book is written simply, the story is very alive. With descriptions of the midwife slapping a hysterical woman in labor to the midwife shouting up the birth canal for a baby to come out, I am glad we are past certain aspects of Medieval medicine.
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