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    Matilda Bone
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    Matilda Bone
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    Matilda Bone
    Audiobook4 hours

    Matilda Bone

    Written by Karen Cushman

    Narrated by Janet McTeer

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    Orphaned Matilda is not at all pleased when she arrives at Blood and Bone Alley to become an assistant to Red Peg the Bonesetter. She is a religious, well-educated girl who can't picture herself doing dirty chores or helping sickly patients.

    Each day is very different from her former quiet life. Matilda's not used to being around so many people who are coming and going, laughing and eating. Not one of them seems interested in prayer or study.

    Self-centered Matilda thinks no one understands her. But Peg does, and gives her time to get used to this new way of life and teaches her through kindness and friendship. Matilda is as surprised as anyone when she begins seeing the world around her in a different way.


    From the Trade Paperback edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 25, 2009
    ISBN9780307710604
    Author

    Karen Cushman

    Karen Cushman was born in Chicago and now lives in Oakland, California. She has a long-standing interest in history (she was Assistant Director of the Museum Studies Department at John F. Kennedy University in San Francisco) particularly in the lives of ordinary people who lived at other times. She won the prestigious Newbery Medal in 1995 for The Midwife's Apprentice and is the author of children's book Catherine, Called Birdy.

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    Reviews for Matilda Bone

    3.5/5

    146 ratings12 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Matilda grew up in a manor house, where the only work expected of her was to assist Father Leufredus, the priest, in his studies. She knows Latin and some Greek, the names and stories of hundreds of saints, and how to be meek and obedient. None of this helps her much when Father Leufredus is called to London, and apprentices Matilda to a bone setter named Red Peg in a town halfway between London and Oxford. Peg is full of good humor and common sense, but all Matilda can see is how different she is from the priest and his teachings. Can Matilda look beyond her preconceptions and find a place in her new life?I typically like Cushman’s historical fiction, but Matilda is a difficult character to love. She does soften up a bit by the end, but reading about her self-imposed misery for most of the book is not a lot of fun. And, while I liked some of the secondary characters, I had trouble keeping them straight. Recommended only to those who can’t get enough of Cushman’s writing.
    • 3/5
      I liked this, though I found it fairly heavy-handed. Young Matilda has been raised by a priest to be humble but learned in Latin, to be obedient and not to question, to be a priggish pain in the tush, in other words. She's suddenly sent to live with Red Peg the Bonesetter, and oh, how Matilda hates this new life where Latin isn't important, and God is about love instead of punishment, and where the unschooled and the ignorant help people in distress. Heavy-handed, but sweet and well-researched and worth reading.
    • 4/5
      I like Karen Cushman a lot, she has a feeling for the telling details that allow her to tell a lot of story in a few words. The narration was engaging and the story was terrific and I enjoyed it very much.
    • 3/5
      4Q 2PThis was a very niche-specific book. The young girl Matilda becomes an apprentice to a bonesetter and must learn the ways of Red Peg, despite her devout and pious training. The religious undertone was very off-putting for a reader and those without Christian background or interest may not like Matilda because of her constant religious speech and deference to saints. The story was written very well and had nice inserts of humor, but it moved very slowly without any major altering events driving the story.
    • 5/5
      Excellent story about an apprentice to a bone setter in medieval Europe.Could be used to learn about early European medicine or apprenticeship.
    • 2/5
      Matilda, an orphaned teenager, has been left at the door of a bonesetter by the priest who has practically raised her to stay, work, and learn while he goes to London to return who-knows-when. Matilda thinks herself far above Red Peg, the bonesetter she is left to help, because she, unlike Peg or most people in Peg's town, can read and write Latin, French, and a little Greek, knows all the saints and most of the demons of Hell and knows her numbers.Little does Matilda know that the life she has found herself dropped into has much to teach her, both in temporal and in spiritual matters: Life is not meant to be dour and "holy"-fied; sometimes folk wisdom is better than empty book learning; good friends are better than dead saints.Although Matilda starts the book off very annoying in her sanctimonious self-righteousness, she drops the attitude as she begins to learn the value of street-smarts and folk wisdom. Matilda Bone is similar to Cushman's other books, "Catherine, Called Birdy" and "The Midwife's Apprentice" - even to the point where I could predict several plot points from knowing those books. It's not as good as "Catherine" and is probably on par with "Apprentice."2.5 stars: I would have liked it so-so as a kid, but it's not something which would have stuck with me like good childrens' books have.
    • 4/5
      More a kids book than the YA I've called it. Therefore, ended far too quickly for my taste.
    • 5/5
      Matilda's personal growth from being told what to think into an independent girl was thought provoking. Her growth takes place while working for a bonesetter during the time of the middle ages.
    • 3/5
      Im not as fond of the protagonist in this one but I did enjoy reading about medieval life and medicine, and appreciating the fact that despite its downfalls modern healthcare does not involve leeches.
    • 3/5
      A good story, in a really interesting setting -- a medical practitioner's alley in a medieval town. I'm astonished that everyone puts up with Matilda's obnoxious upbringing, but I love that they do. They treat her with kindness, and show her a different way, and Matilda eventually blossoms.
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful story of a young girl finding her way in a strange and frightening new world as she moves from a sheltered life in a monastery to the shop of a London bone setter. Although a major theme of the story is maturing out of religious naivety into a better understanding of the real world, the author remains respectful of religious beliefs. Her protagonist grows out of narrow-mindedness but not out of her belief in God. Although she becomes disillusioned with her religious upbringing, she does not become bitter. Her heart is enlarged by the active, practical love she sees performed by people that she would have not thought of as worthy or spiritual in her previous life in the monastery. I found this to be a delightful coming-of-age story, full of realistic and relatable characters. There's enough of a horrifying glimpse into the gruesome medicine of the Middle Ages to keep middle-schoolers interested. I will definitely recommend this story to my students.
    • 3/5
      a wonderful book introducing the middle ages to children but, really, to anyone. Cushman does a good job of animating the everyday life of a person in medieval England and has truly done her research on just about every aspect of medieval life but focused on medicine and religion.

      surprisingly, this book teaches critical thinking and confronts overly pious and zealous attitudes with enthusiasm. Matilda Bone was raised in a minor noble's manor by a priest who is delivered to a bonesetter named Peg who lives on Blood and Bone Alley in a small village. at first, she is disdainful to the extreme of all the lower class people who work for a living thinking that prayers to saints and deference paid to haughty personages like Master Theobald, the local physician who really knows nothing, is the only proper way to live your life and solve problems. she eventully comes round to see that knowledge and work like Peg and the other villagers do is not unworthy and that her mentor, Father Leufedus, was not the font of infallible information.

      a great book for kids to learn about the middle ages, living life humbly and gratefully, class prejudice, and thinking for yourself.