In a carefully researched novel set in the medieval period, the author of The Midwife’s Apprentice (1996 Newbery winner) depicts another vivid heroine, left alone to make her place in the world. Having been raised motherless in a fine manor under the tutelage of Father Leufredus, Matilda has learned to read and write Greek and Latin and to pray seven times a day. When the priest leaves her with Red Peg, the bonesetter in Blood and Bone Alley, Matilda disapproves of her new home, her new “mentor” and the requirements of her new job . . . which include tending the fire, cooking, restraining patients, and helping set bones rather than reading, writing, and praying. Gradually Matilda sees the truth: that Father Leufredus will never return, that he never spoke of God’s love, and that she was lonely in her former home. She acknowledges the goodness of those who make up her new community, especially the strong women like Peg, with their clever fingers and common sense, whose lives are hard but who laugh more than they frown . . . women who contrast with the men whom Matilda has been conditioned to hold in deference. At the conclusion Matilda comes to terms with the fact that she cannot predict her own future but “. . . whatever it was she believed she could do.” This has much to commend it: a robust setting, the author’s deft way with imagery (Peg’s decent face is “beslobbered with freckles”) and an impressive command of medieval medical detail. It is laced with humor, in part due to the structural connective tissue formed by the saint’s scornful answers to Matilda’s unceasing prayerful pleas. But in the end, Matilda herself comes off, as the saints themselves conclude, as a rather tiresome prig whose journey towards self-discovery, while rich in incident, may not hold quite enough overall plot tension to compel every reader. (Fiction. 10-14)

Fans of Cushman's previous medieval novels (Catherine, Called Birdy; The Midwife's Apprentice) may be disappointed with this historical adventure set in "Blood and Bone Alley" in the town of Chipping Bagthorpe. Unlike Catherine and Brat, heroines whose combination of rebelliousness and resourcefulness made them instantly likeable, 13-year-old Matilda is less winning than her supporting cast. The daughter of a wealthy lord's clerk and a mother who fled soon after her birth, Matilda finds herself orphaned when her father dies. As the novel opens, her self-appointed guardian, Father Leufredus, has just dropped her off at the meager lodgings of Red Peg the Bonesetter to learn Peg's trade. Fresh from the intolerant Father's tutelage, Matilda, in her zealous piety, snubs Peg and inadvertently thwarts the woman's work: more than once, while lost in prayer, the girl ruins a salve or a simple meal of porridge. Thus readers don't get the same insider's view of the bonesetter's apprenticeship that they saw of midwifery through Brat's eyes. The promise of a potential villain, Master Theobold, "the leading physick" who prizes money over healing, is never realized; the development of Matilda's friendship with another girl takes place mostly offstage; and, strangely, there are two denouements, in which Matilda makes the same realization that she has been wrong about Peg (one involving an ailing stranger whom she is treating, the other the apothecary's apprentice). Fiery Peg, her witty husband and her circle of friends will be the characters readers remember. Ages 10-14. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Gr. 6^-8. Matilda Bone joins Alyce, the midwife's apprentice, and Catherine called Birdy as Cushman's latest heroine of the Middle Ages. But in this story, setting not character takes precedence. Matilda has lived her 14 years in a manor house where Father Leufredus has taught her Latin and encouraged her fear of going to hell. Now, with the priest off to London, Matilda finds herself in Blood and Bone Alley where, much to her dismay, she's been apprenticed to Peg the Bonesetter. It's a whole new world for Matilda, who spends her time mentally conversing with saints and thinking herself better than those around her, as she begins to learn about healing. Bloodlettings, bone settings, foul remedies, and scary surgeries abound throughout the book, and it's easy to lose track of Matilda's evolution. It's the illness and the healing (and the death) that's the focal point here, not pious, whiny Matilda, who takes an inordinately long time to learn that the dependable, hardworking people she comes in contact with are worth more than the fools and cheaters whose learning she admires. Readers will find much of interest here, but it probably won't be the evolution of Matilda. --Ilene Cooper

Gr 4-8-A fascinating glimpse into the colorful life and times of the 14th century. Orphaned Matilda, 13, has lived the good life in a manor where she was well educated by Father Leufredus. Things change drastically, however, when he abandons her, leaving her to serve as an assistant to a bonesetter in return for food and shelter. Matilda is expected to cook the meals, tend the fire, and generally assist Red Peg. And Peg has her hands full dealing with this self-righteous, pious child who snobbishly sprinkles Latin in her everyday speech and continuously brags about her ability to read and write. Peg, however, allows Matilda time to ponder her new role and teaches her, by example, that kindness and friendship go a long way toward lessening the harshness of life in this small English village. Matilda constantly prays for help, guidance, and deliverance. The saints, and this child knows many, respond with humor and sometimes sound advice. The theology espoused by Matilda is consistent with the time period and Father Leufredus has taught her well. She has no thoughts of her own-only the musing and learning of Father Leufredus. She stiffly withholds herself from all attempts at friendship and kindness, and she feels more and more alone. However, when she meets a kitchen maid who joyfully introduces her to the market square, her eyes slowly open to the world around her. Readers witness her spiritual and emotional growth as she blossoms from a self-centered "nincompoop" to a compassionate, competent assistant. Cushman's character descriptions are spare, with each word carefully chosen to paint wonderful pictures. This humorous, frank look at life in the medical quarters in medieval times shows readers that love and compassion, laughter and companionship, are indeed the best medicine.-Kit Vaughan, Midlothian Middle School, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(Intermediate) We think we've met her before. Is she another Karen Cushman medieval female protagonist, like timid Alyce (Midwife's Apprentice [rev. 7/95]), alone in a seemingly alien environment? Or like feisty Catherine (Catherine, Called Birdy [rev. 7/94]), with saints to comfort or chastise her? But Matilda is made of her own medieval cloth, garbed in obeisance. Before her arrival at Red Peg's, the Bonesetter's abode on Blood and Bone Alley where she is to take up residence and labor, her life at Randall Manor with Father Leufredus was steeped in prayer; under his tutelage, Matilda was ""taught...to seek higher things, like God and Heaven, saintliness and obedience."" She mistakes the goodly Peg, her kind husband Tom, and their loyal companion, the stout physician Margery Lewes, as unholy, even heretical, and fails to see their work as worthy. Matilda's very seriousness accounts for much of the humor in Cushman's novel: her heroine cannot see her own foolish single-mindedness. Sent to the market to buy dinner, Matilda is conned by the rapacious fishmonger into purchasing rotten fish; she is also fooled by Master Theobald the Wonderworker, the town's leading physician, whose impressive outer dress and demeanor cause her to credit him with undue inner worth. Cushman mocks other lesser characters with irreverent fun: the rhyming bloodletter Horanswith Leech, Mistress Annet Greedyguts, Grizzl Wimplewasher, barber-surgeons Boggle and Slodge. Matilda's saintliness wears thin on the reader; one is eager for her to embrace the uncertain, questioning world and to discover-as of course she finally does-that Peg's goodness is the sturdier godliness. A compelling afterword acquaints readers with the arcane medicine of the day. In the note Cushman reveals her initial concern that her research should not overwhelm her story; the truth is, this information is just as interesting as Matilda's tale. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.