The Midwife's Apprentice
By Karen Cushman
Genre: Middle Grade Historical Fiction
Personal Rating: 10/10

A young girl with no home and no family finds purpose as an apprentice to the village midwife. Known as only Brat or Dungbeetle, this girl eventually finds her place in the world and discovers her own worth. A medieval historical fiction for children and a Newbery medal winner.

I started reading this book with some children I babysat, but I ended up reading ahead because I enjoyed it so much. I love historical fiction and even though this is a children's book I felt like I gained something by reading it. It was very well researched and the language of the writing felt genuine for the medieval era. This book teaches that every life has purpose, and that you can achieve more than you think you can.

The only reservation I have with this book is that I don't know how appropriate some parts are for small children. This book is about midwifery, so there is a lot of discussion about giving birth. While there wasn't any graphic description, but I still wouldn't feel great about reading this to a classroom of students. There are also a few uses of mild swears like hell and damn. The girls I read it to really enjoyed the story, but I did have to edit a bit as I read out loud.

Overall I was very impressed with this book and I plan and reading the rest of Karen Cushman's historical works.