This book was inspired by the necessity of creating a play for a classroom where no one wanted a small part. This book is written by a librarian in the setting of a good-sized medieval village in the year 1255. Each of the 23 characters (between 10 and 15 years old) has a distinct personality and a societal role revealed not by recitation of facts but by revelation of memories, intentions, and attitudes.It consists of 22 monologues, each from the point of view of one member of the town, which serves to both give the reader an emotional sense of what it may have been like to live at the time, and also imparts a lot of factual information. Footnotes and sections titled "A Little Background" offer more in-depth information about the life and times. It's not something many kids would pick up on their own, I don't think, but it has the potential to be a truly invaluable teaching tool.
I think that this would be a great book for history classes. It would be great for theater classes and for reading classes working on intonation and voice. I would recommend listening to this on an audiobook.
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