Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village

Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating twenty-two unforgettable characters. Winner of the Newbery Medal.

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 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.

Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
Published: 07/24/2007
Pages: 85
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 10.30h x 7.50w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780763615789
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.6
Point Value: 2
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 115900 / Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village


Award: Parents Choice Award (Fall) (1998-2007) - Winner
Award: Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award - Nominee
Award: Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens - Recommended
Award: Newbery Medal - Winner
Award: Cybils - Finalist


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Review - Children 07/15/2007 pg. 734
School Library Journal 08/01/2007 pg. 138
Booklist 08/01/2007 pg. 69
Publishers Weekly 08/27/2007 pg. 90
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2007 pg. 51 - Book Of Special Distinction
Kirkus Best Children's Books 11/15/2007 pg. 1
New York Times Book Review 12/16/2007 pg. 21
SLJ's Best Books 12/01/2007 pg. 38
Horn Book Magazine 11/01/2007 pg. 699
Booklist Ed Choice Youth 01/01/2008 pg. 14
People Weekly 02/04/2008 pg. 47

About the Author
Laura Amy Schlitz is the author of the Newbery Medal-winning Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, the Newbery Honor Book and New York Times bestseller Splendors and Glooms, and several other books for young readers. A teacher as well as a writer, Laura Amy Schlitz lives in Maryland.

Robert Byrd teaches children's book illustration at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He is the author-illustrator of many books, including Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer; Finn Maccoul and His Fearless Wife; and The Hero and the Minotaur. He also illustrated Laura Amy Schlitz's first book for children, The Hero Schliemann, about the life of a nineteenth-century amateur archaeologist. Robert Byrd lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey.