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Family History
Wines Photography Books |
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TheRagens Wine Tastings
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Seattle Children's Theatre Recommended Reading List Production: The Midwife's Apprentice In medieval England, an orphan girl makes her way alone in the world. She scrounges for food and seeks warmth in a dung heap when she wants to sleep. The only name she knows is "Brat". Renamed "Beetle" for the bugs that inhabit her sleeping quarters by Jane Sharp, the village midwife, the girl inadvertently becomes an apprentice in midwifery. Jane is only interested in Beetle for the inexpensive labor she can provide. Beetle, however, finds herself ever more interested in the process of bringing a life into the world. Beetle’s days are filled with hard work, learning and the stray cat she adopts. When she travels to a fair to purchase necessities for Jane, Beetle becomes the proud owner of a comb, and for the first time in her life, turns her tangles into curls. She is then mistaken for Alyce, a girl who can read. Inspired by such flattering confusion, Beetle renames herself in honor of the mysterious, literate Alyce. The newly named Alyce delivers her first baby in Jane’s absence; but, when expectant mothers in the village begin requesting Alyce’s presence at their births, not Jane’s, the midwife grows angry and jealous. When Alyce is unable to help a laboring woman deliver her child, she flees the village in despair over her failure. She takes up residence as an inn girl. While there she secretly begins to learn to read and write, but her all too human desire to find contentment remains unfulfilled. When fate brings her face to face with her fears and her strengths, Alyce must decide which will prove the stronger. Booklist prepared by Nicolas Berry and Gayle Richardson Seattle Public Library, Seattle Public Library. Books available from Amazon.com. For Children
For Parents and Educators
For booklists from other productions of the Seattle Children's Theatre, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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