Review: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz,

Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating twenty-two unforgettable characters.

Maidens, monks, and millers’ sons — in these pages, readers will meet them all. 

There’s Hugo, the lord’s nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar; sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling live eels; and the peasant’s daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord. 

There’s also mud-slinging Barbary (and her noble victim); Jack, the compassionate half-wit; Alice, the singing shepherdess; and many more. 

With a deep appreciation for the period and a grand affection for both characters and audience, Laura Amy Schlitz creates twenty-two riveting portraits and linguistic gems equally suited to silent reading or performance.

 Illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by Robert Byrd — inspired by the Munich-Nuremberg manuscript, an illuminated poem from thirteenth-century Germany — this witty, historically accurate, and utterly human collection forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England.

Hardcover, 96 pages

Published July 24th 2007

by Candlewick

3/5 stars

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! is the 2008 John Newbery Medal Winner.  I am not totally sure what the criteria is to win this honour but Good Masters is a different format to other medal winners that I have read. 

Told is a series of plays/skits geared for a younger audience its pretty much a history lesson with different members of society from different classes.  It's educational, told in verse mostly and illustrated nicely. It was a fun read, I even learned a few things about medieval England. It was well researched and would make a nice addition to class rooms.

My copy was from my bookshelf and not just part of my 2021 Reading Off My Shelf Challenge

 but also reading the John Newbery Medal Winners.

Review: The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz

Today Miss Chandler gave me this beautiful book. I vow that I will never forget her kindness to me, and I will use this book as she told me to—that I will write in it with truth and refinement…But who could be refined living at Steeple Farm?

Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs, just like the heroines in her beloved novels, yearns for real life and true love. But what hope is there for adventure, beauty, or art on a hardscrabble farm in Pennsylvania where the work never ends? Over the summer of 1911, Joan pours her heart out into her diary as she seeks a new, better life for herself—because maybe, just maybe, a hired girl cleaning and cooking for six dollars a week can become what a farm girl could only dream of—a woman with a future.

Inspired by her grandmother’s journal, Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz brings her sharp wit and keen eye to early twentieth-century America in a comedic tour de force destined to become a modern classic. Joan’s journey from the muck of the chicken coop to the comforts of a society household in Baltimore (Electricity! Carpet sweepers! Sending out the laundry!) takes its reader on an exploration of feminism and housework, religion and literature, love and loyalty, cats, hats, bunions, and burns. 

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published September 8th 2015 by Candlewick Press 

arc - netgalley

***1/2 

I am always on the lookout for YA HF and was excited when The Hired Girl was featured on netgalley.  Though I had not heard of this book before, the author Laura Amy Schlitz was familiar to me as a John Newbery award winner. 

Introduced to Joan when she is only 14 years old, it wasn't hard to care about her.   Taking place in 1911 the author painted a vivid picture of what her life is like, motherless and serving a brutal father who seems to care very little for his only daughter.  It wasn't hard to visualize the times and how hard Joan worked.

In some ways Joan is a mature 14 year old.  Deciding to take control of her life she risks much and ends up as a Hired Girl to a Jewish family in Baltimore.  This book is told through diary entries which worked very well here.  While pretending to be 18 is where her immaturity shows, with different entries from 'wonderful day', 'terrible day' to 'woe is me' days she is the 14 year old in need of guidance and someone to genuinely care about her.

The debates regarding religion were interesting, showing her ability to think for herself and desire to learn.  Not overly preachy it was a nice touch.

I really enjoyed reading The Hired Girl, but will admit a few times I thought it dragged a little at the half way point.  The ending was great and answered some questions that were nagging me for much of the book.  I would have liked to read some Author Notes at the end, just to get more info on the background and more about the author's grandmother and inspiration for writing this book.  Rated as YA I think this will definitely appeal to adults as well.