Title: Crispin, The Cross of Lead
Author: Avi
Genre: Historic Fiction
This book's setting takes place in Medieval England, during the fourteenth century. The protagonist of this book is a boy who lives as a peasent with his mother, whose name is Asta. They are very poor, and all they can eat is bread, and sometimes dry peas. The first thing that struck me as I started reading this book is how unfairly the peasents in England were treated at that time. Everybody looked down on them, and they basically had no rights. They lived in small, isolated villages of only about 100 people, and their only source of income comes from selling crops. However, the life of Asta's son (the protagonist) takes a turn for the worst, when his mother dies. She is buried by her only friend, the priest, and the steward of the manor, John Aycliffe, asks Asta's son to give him their only ox as a death tax. This also shows that the peasents have no rights, because without the ox, Asta's son cannot survive, because he couldn't farm. I found it really strange that everyone calls him "Asta's son" and that he doesn't have a name just because his father has died of the plague, but I guess that this will be explained later on in the book. After his mother's funeral, Asta's son becomes really sad, worried and depressed, and start tumbling into the woods, and falls somewhere in the woods. He wakes up not knowing where he is and not knowing where to go.
So far, I really like this book, and I like how it talks about the history of Medieval England through a fun, interesting and creative way.
Author: Avi
Genre: Historic Fiction
This book's setting takes place in Medieval England, during the fourteenth century. The protagonist of this book is a boy who lives as a peasent with his mother, whose name is Asta. They are very poor, and all they can eat is bread, and sometimes dry peas. The first thing that struck me as I started reading this book is how unfairly the peasents in England were treated at that time. Everybody looked down on them, and they basically had no rights. They lived in small, isolated villages of only about 100 people, and their only source of income comes from selling crops. However, the life of Asta's son (the protagonist) takes a turn for the worst, when his mother dies. She is buried by her only friend, the priest, and the steward of the manor, John Aycliffe, asks Asta's son to give him their only ox as a death tax. This also shows that the peasents have no rights, because without the ox, Asta's son cannot survive, because he couldn't farm. I found it really strange that everyone calls him "Asta's son" and that he doesn't have a name just because his father has died of the plague, but I guess that this will be explained later on in the book. After his mother's funeral, Asta's son becomes really sad, worried and depressed, and start tumbling into the woods, and falls somewhere in the woods. He wakes up not knowing where he is and not knowing where to go.
So far, I really like this book, and I like how it talks about the history of Medieval England through a fun, interesting and creative way.
I agree with you when you said that the peasants have no rights! From your descriptions of this book, I think I would like it too.
ReplyDeleteGreat choice, I'm hoping I'll get to read it in the future!