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The Midwife's Apprentice

 Summary of Book: The Midwife's Apprentice was written by Karen Cushman and is the recipient of the Newberry Award. This story is set in medieval England and the story is set around a homeless, orphan girl with the first name we're introduced to her having as Brat. Brat lives going from village to village, working when she can and stealing when she can't work and needs food. Eventually she ends up in a village and sleeps in poop. She is found by the towns Midwife who takes pity on her and allows her to come and assist the Midwife (or Jane Sharp) in exchange for room and a little bit of food. The situation proves to be beneficial for both parries as Brat, now named Beetle by the Midwife, and the Midwife seem to need each others help. Whenever the Midwife goes to perform a delivery, she never lets Beetle see, but Beetle will usually sneak around and observe through different ways. Beetle also saves a cat from some boys that are abusing it and names it Purr. Eventually, Beetle begins to earn respect around the village and the townspeople start to even like her which helps to boost her confidence more and more. And after somebody mistakes her for being literate, she decides to change her name to one that others and she would respect more and demands to be called Alyce. Her confidence grows even more when she delivers a baby without the help of the Midwife. However, this does not go in Alyce's favor because the Midwife becomes jealous and threatened. And then one day a pregnant lady asks for Alyce to deliver her baby and when Alyce is unable and has to ask the Midwife for help, she is so humiliated that she and Purr leave town. They end up working at an inn and then Alyce learns how to read. During this time she realizes that she really did enjoy being a Midwife and it is her passion, so she goes back to the town with the Midwife and asks her if she can be her apprentice and promises that this time, she will not run away when the going gets tough and will not try to take over. The Midwife agrees and by calling her "Beetle" as before. 

Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I would use this book in my classroom because the main theme of the story is never giving up which would be a good idea to teach to students. 

Appropriate age group for this book: 9-12

Ideas for unit of study to include this book or how you might use this book in the classroom: A couple of ideas on how to incorporate this book into a classroom is to set up questions while reading through each chapter. At the end of the book the teacher could have the students do a story map or character analysis.

I personally would have questions set up after each chapter to judge the students engagement with the story. These questions would include how the character seemed to change through the chapter, or how a student could personally relate to the characters in the chapter just read, or what they learned personally. 



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