GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES
Voices From a Medieval Village
By Laura Amy Schlitz
Illustrated by Robert Byrd
Candlewick, 2007
Category: Middle Grade Nonfiction
I almost titled this post Saturday Morning Bliss, because my husband and the kids went out for the morning and left me in a quiet house with a hot cup of tea, a cozy blanket and a copy of GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! Bliss.
Let me say—now that I am done lounging—that if the kids had been here, draping my blanket over the couch to make a fort and, in the effort, spilling my tea and, in their dismay, squabbling and bickering, I would still have experienced bliss. Because this book, this slim and gorgeous book, has left me breathless. GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! is magnificent! Hooray for the Newbery committee that labeled it this year’s “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” It was an incredible choice.
I don’t have a theatrical bone in my body, and yet I am longing to gather together a group of players to perform these monologues and dialogues. I am especially keen to hear the dialogues. The voices are woven masterfully and I can’t help but want to hear them spoken by actors. Schlitz blends period language, interpretive comments, and brief contextual summaries equally well, and she knows just how to draw her readers deeper into history. (What in Heaven’s name could have happened to Saint Erasmus? What could be “too disgusting” to share?)
Congratulations to Laura Amy Schlitz and her lovely Newbery-winning book. If you haven’t read it yet, you are in for a whole lotta bliss.