Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village

This book is a collection of monologues (and a few dialogues) written by a librarian for fifth grade students to perform and learn about life in a medieval village. It was the winner of the 2008 Newbery award. Each monologue is told from the point of view of a different child in the village, mostly

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written in verse.

I haven't read any of the other Newbery winners written in verse yet, but I hope they are better than this. If something is written in verse, it has to be done well or it drives me crazy. If there is rhythm or rhyme, it needs to be consistent. If there is no rhythm or rhyme, I feel there needs to be a reason for the stanzas to be formatted as they are. The metrical structure, rhyme, and formatting of this book were so awkward, it was hard to appreciate anything else about the book. Since there was rarely rhyme or rhythm in these verses, it would have made more sense to have them all in prose.

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"Good Master! Sweet Ladies!" by Laura Amy Schlitz is a collection of monologues that are short verse portraits of inhabitants you'd find in a typical medieval English village. There's Taggot, the blacksmith's daughter who laments the fact that she will likely never marry, and Simon, the knight's

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son, who dreams of the crusades. And many more.

As with The Royal Diaries series, this brings history to the reader by combining both the very familiar and the very foreign; the children in this drama experience some of the same emotions as preteens/teens today, but the context in which they do so is drastically different. However, this work will appeal more to middle schoolers who already have an interest in (medieval) history or theater. It is hard to imagine a reluctant reader picking up this book and getting through it.

These monologues seem like they would be more fun to performed, as they were meant to be. Schlitz is a both a librarian and theater director/instruction at the school at which she works. In the Foreword she explains that she wrote the "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!" as a series of monologues because she wanted each of her students to be a part of a production.

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This book has a very specific niche. I can see it being useful in a middle school class studying medieval times and needing a presentation project. The monologues provided are historically accurate, but the content does not lend itself to younger (elementary) audiences. I do like that the

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monologues of the members of this imaginary village allude to the other characters in the book. However, I did not enjoy reading it overall. Medieval times were hard times.

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In this 2008 Newbery Medal winner, the author takes the reader to a Medieval Village.

Each poem is a story told by the daughter, son, nephew or apprentice of a particular trades person.

While it is creative and the illustrations are very artistic, I personally cannot recommend this book.

It falls

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flat, smack face down in one of the muddy roads that meander throughout the village. The stories jump around higher and faster than the fleas and lice described as a part of the every day life in 1255. I kept waiting for at least one of the tales to soar like the falcon, but alas, as unglamorous as the Crusades, it felt like a pilgrimage to no where.

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This collection of monologues for young readers offers a personal insight to the differing lives on a medieval English manor. The various viewpoints and honest accounts are both interesting and educational, but the book lacks cohension in the story. I would like to have seen the different

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monologues interweave more, and each child have an effect on another's life. The possibilties for expanding the monologues and allowing interaction betwenn the characters are endless, and the format begs for such. These were written for the young, and should permit more playfulness and discovery within their words.

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I cannot think of the words to say how much I loved this latest Newbery winner. Good Masters, Sweet Ladies: Voices from a Medieval Village is a wonderful adventure in medieval history. Written by Laura Amy Schlitz to be performed by middle school students with each having a substantial role, the

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author introduces a variety of young people who might have lived in a village in England in 1255. Interspersed between the short vignettes provided for each villager, the author includes brief historical notes and longer explanations of specific topics which might be of interest to the reader. What a successful plunge into the publishing world by a fellow librarian.

I cannot leave you with my favorite quote because I just don’t think I have one. You need to read the book (I read it in only about 30 minutes) and see what you think. I should also add that I really liked the illustrations by Robert Byrd as well. Another quality which is very nice in a children’s book is a full bibliography. I loved it!!

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Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! is the perfect book for 7th grade English and History teachers to use to collaborate on interdisciplinary lessons that students will find hard to resist. Laura Amy Schlitz, author, poet, dramatist and history enthusiast, sets nineteen monologues and two, two voice

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dialogues, in England, in a Medieval village in the year 1255. Twenty-two characters, with ages ranging from 10 through 15, deliver brilliantly written and historically accurate personal accounts of their lives, work, social customs and beliefs. The illustrations by Robert Byrd, are beautifully rendered in ink and watercolor and add to the authenticity of this dramatic tour-de-force.

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A very interesting read, but it requires a different set of eyes. I went in with the mindset of "I'm going to read a fiction book" and started off despising this book. Once I finally started reading it as a performance, a play and account of characters in Shakespearean times, I began to love it.

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The portions in which two players performed a tandem soliloquy were the highlights for me.

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Written for a group of middle school students with both verse and expository passages, these Canterbury Tales for ‘tweens beg to be read aloud! Schlitz’s characters, from all social strata, exude personality as well as reflect their station in medieval society. Chaucer would approve!

The book

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opens with Byrd’s illustration of the Medieval manor and places the characters in the scene. Byrd’s illustrations strengthen the setting and add humor to the story.

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Enjoyable and informative, if not lingering. I gained much information about the Middle Ages, and I appreciated the slight through-lines that made characters show up in others' monologues. The detail has been painstakingly researched, lending the book an air of authoritativeness.

But I foresee this

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book being too verbose to be widely accessible, and some of the details are way too graphic. It just lacks the punch of a really taut nonfiction book, a dramatic play, OR an engaging novel.

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Schlitz has done such a remarkable job of sharing sound research in a format that will "hook" our 6th graders studying about this time period. The young persons living in this medieval village became quite real to me as I read the book... particularly fond of the blacksmith's daughter, the honesty

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of the doctor's child, the tie-ins from one monologue to another.

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23 young characters from all walks of medieval English life introduce themselves in this collection of monologues. The stories, many of which intertwine, are each told in the character's distinctive voice - some in prose and some in verse. Illustrations inspired by illuminated manuscripts of the

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time enhance the feeling of the text. Very readable footnotes and short essays provide information on topics such as the farming systems of the time, pilgrimages and falconry. Topics such as the Crusades and treatment of the Jews during this time period are also addressed frankly. Designed as a play in which no one would have to have a bit part, this collection could be enjoyed silently, but is particularly well suited to be performed aloud. I do wonder about the audience for this book, as the format suggests elementary school, but the language and subject matter might be beyond the frame of reference of many in this age group. I would highly recommend this book as part of a larger unit Medieval life, however, and would likely include it in a collection for upper elementary students (and perhaps middle school) students.

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Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From a Medieval Village is a collection of seventeen short plays set in the Middle Ages. These plays were written by a librarian for her students. They are beautifully written and the author also includes background information about the time period.

I've always

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been fascinated by the Middle Ages. I am currently working on a paper about Medieval Drama so this book caught my attention immediately when I was looking at Newbery Award Winners.

In the classroom this would be great for a history or literature course. The beautiful language is easily read and would be great drama for young readers. The historical information included would be a great addition to a history lesson.

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This is a collection of monologues (and a handful of dialogues) of different characters in a medieval village. Some of them know each other, some speak poetically and others in prose, but all give you a multifaceted look at life in the 13th century. Beginning with the lord's nephew and ending with

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a beggar, each monologue is individual, gives a slightly different perspective, and makes each character feel real and likable.

This was a quick read that I enjoyed pretty well. It was different, with its mix of nonfiction notes and made-up characters. Some historical notes are interspersed, giving the book a little bit of a teacherly feel. I can see why the book won a Newbery, though I think that it might get more notice from adults than kids as a possible "teaching tool."

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The 2008 Newbery award winner, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, is by Laura Amy Schlitz. The book is subtitled Voices from a Medieval Village, and contains points of view from the blacksmith’s daughter, the tanner’s son, the falconer’s son, the glassblower’s daughters, among many others. I

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didn’t like it at all at first, but by the time I got to the story about a shepherdess singing to a grieving ewe, I was enjoying it. The illustrations by Robert Byrd were excellent.

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Presents information about medieval life in a palatable, easy-to-read format that is a pleasure to read. Much better than reading a conventional history book.

A collection of monologues written for her students at the Park School in Baltimore, this volume gives us a glimpse into life in a medieval village. Schlitz has written monologues for children in the village including the lord's daughter, the miller's son, the beggar, the Jew... Footnotes help

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explain some of the language and medieval references and every so often she inserts some background information (about, for example, the status of Jews in medieval society or the Crusades). I read each of the monologues out loud (which is what they were written for, after all) and found them delightful. I could picture school kids dressing up in costumes and performing this collection for an audience of rapt parents. This isn't a book to be rushed through, but one to be savored and listened to.

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A beautiful book that deserves its Newbery Medal (2008). Strictly speaking it is literature as in a collection of monologues and dialogues for young teens but a great deal of medieval history is incorporated into the text and illustrations so I am counting it. Recommended.

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

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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. From Goodreads

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This is a book that I had looked forward to reading because it was written by a school librarian who gradually conceived of this book over years of reading and making up stories for the kids who came into the library. It is a compilation of monologues set in an English Village in 1255 that is a

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delight to read. The author, true to the educator she is, provides pages of historically accurate background information for the reader who is less than knowledgeable about the customs, language and class distinctions of medieval England. Even though this book is illustrated and brief, I think that it might be tedious reading for a middle school age reader to read alone. It would be best used as an educational aid, and many content areas would be served well. I loved the characters idiosyncrasies and delighted in down and dirty reality of everyday life during that time that the author conjured up so well. I believe those things would be equally delightful to middle school students too.

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This is an amazing book. It is a collection of one act plays that a librarian wrote her students at her school. The plays are focused around a medieval theme and each play highlights a variety of people that would have been found living in a medieval village. On the initial page for each character,

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there is a short vocabulary list that may enhance a reader's understanding. As you read through the creative monologues you can't help but be distracted by the illustrations and page layout. Each page has a ribbon of color, that gives the page edges an appearance of a framed stage. The drawings are colored, but look like simple colored sketches. The simplicity almost mimics the style of art from the medieval period. The colors are rich and vivid. The color tones almost remind me of the richness in altar pieces. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! May or may not be something any teacher could put on, but the book is definitely a work of art!

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Really neat format. Small plays, each about a different part of medieval life. Listened to the audio, which was really like hearing a performance. Informative and entertaining for anyone who enjoys the medieval time period.

This year’s Newbery winner. Loved it. The book was written in the form of short monologues, with characters representing many of the traditional people of medieval times. The author uses the sidebars to explain here and there words and expressions that children might not know. She also interjects

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a few pages of informational text to explain some of the key features of the times.Loved it!

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One thing I've enjoyed about reading Newberry Medal winners is the variety of the selections. This book of monologues, written to be performed by children, is an engaging look at life in the Middle Ages. Taken together they give the reader a glimpse of life in a world completely different from

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modern United States. There's a fair dose of humor, which contrasts nicely with the realities of lice and fleas, hunger and oppression.

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