Title: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Major Themes: Medieval Life
Synopsis: A number of inhabitants in a medieval village in Europe tell stories from their lives.
We have loved most of the books used in Sonlight Curriculum. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, however, just wasn’t popular with my crew. We read the whole book, but will probably never read it again. I believe it would go over much better with a family who enjoyed drama. It was written to be acted, as 19 monologues and 2 dialogues. These 23 people, all residents of a medieval village somewhere in Europe, describe something of their lives; all 21 acts put together help to build up a picture of life at that time and place. I found them quite interesting, but as I said, my children did not. Probably this would be best used as a reader, unless, of course you will be using it to give a presentation, which it was written for.
The characters who tell their stories range from Hugo, the lord’s nephew, and Isobel, the lord’s daughter, to Otho, the miller’s son, Piers, the glassblower’s apprentice, and Giles the beggar—even down to Barbary, the mud slinger! Many of the stories are interconnected, and all work together to build up a well-rounded picture of life for the common people in the Middle Ages. Interspersed throughout the book are articles giving more in-depth information about various topics, such as the three-field system, pilgrimages, or Jews in medieval society. Footnotes in the monologues explain some of the terminologies used by the characters.
No warnings!
Age levels:
Reading Independently—Ages 8 – 12, 10 – 12
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