A dozen or so pages into this book and it's easy to see why it won the coveted Newbery Award. Set in fourteenth-century medieval England, Crispin chronicles the progression of a young man from being simply "Asta's son" to a condemned criminal to a fugitive to, well, I won't spoil the ending for you.

We first meet Crispin as he walks with the village priest, bearing his mother to her grave. "A steady, hissing rain had turned the ground to clinging mud. No birds sang. No bells tolled. The sun hid behind the dark and lowering clouds." An apt description, the reader infers, of Crispin's life as a whole up to this point. The village had long shunned the widowed mother as well as the son.

Beyond consoling and ragged with grief, Crispin runs into the woods. While there he overhears and sees something he should not. He is chased by John Aycliffe, Lord Furnival's steward. Crispin, like any good medieval peasant of the time, accepts his travails as God's punishment.

Soon Crispin is accused of stealing money from Lord Furnival's manor house, something he did not do. He is declared a wolf's head—a designation which meant that Crispin was considered an outlaw and could be hunted down and killed.

The young boy hides out in the woods and finally, secretly, visits the priest seeking help. During the visit the priest hints that Crispin was not simply "Asta's son." He tells the boy to escape to a city, and remain there for one year. Then, by custom, he will have gained his freedom. The priest then gives Crispin Asta's cross of lead, "the one with which she so oft prayed, which was in her hands when she died." He tells the young boy that he saw Asta write the words inscribed into the back of the cross. Words that Crispin could not read, as he was, like most peasants, illiterate.

After further calamity, Crispin begins his trek to a city. Along the way he meets a "great barrel of a fellow" named, appropriately, Bear. The huge man turns out to be a traveling juggler who wanders from town to town. It is a fortuitous meeting for Crispin. Together the entertainer and the young orphan begin to make their way to the city of Great Wexly.

It is there, in that great, crowded, dirty city that Crispin learns the truth of his birth. But others know the truth also, and are determined to make sure no one else learns of it. And that means quieting, for good, Crispin.

Rich in historical detail, Crispin is a tale of heartbreak and deliverance. The reader hears authentic voices and conjures arresting images thanks to the powerful and deft writing.

Highly recommended.

Reviewed by the teachers at Education Oasis
©2004 Education Oasis  http://www.educationoasis.com