The Beatryce Prophecy

 

I am so happy to see that Kate DiCamillo has written a new book, but at the same time, some haunting memories came flooding back.  Did I ever tell you about the two equally memorable and horrifying meetings I had with her?  The first one was memorable (not in a good way) and the second, a year later, was horrifying because she remembered me from the first meeting.  Oh, but that is a story for another time!

The following review of her soon to be published book came across a trade news feed, indicating it is a sharable article.  How much better is this than having to wade through my clumsy prose along with a few guaranteed typos.  So...here you go....all about my "friend" Kate's new book....

The Beatryce Prophecy

by Kate DiCamillo, illus. by Sophie Blackall

In The Beatryce Prophecy, the talents of two-time Newbery medalist Kate DiCamillo and two-time Caldecott medalist Sophie Blackall combine to create an unforgettable medieval epic that illustrates the magical and myriad ways that love and stories change the world.

The narrative hinges on a prophecy: "There will one day come a girl child who will unseat a king and bring about a great change." 

The mysterious appearance of a girl "not more than ten years old" in the barn of the monks of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing is the spark that ignites The Beatryce Prophecy. The monks are the keepers and authors of the Chronicles, which "tell the story of what has happened and of things that might yet happen, those things which have been prophesied." Brother Edik is both a prophesier and an illuminator of the "glorious golden letters that begin the text of each page of the Chronicles." One morning, late to feed the hard-headed and wily monastery goat, Brother Edik discovers that the beast is curled protectively around a small, dirty, feverish child with bloodied feet. The girl eventually wakes from her illness with the memory of her name--Beatryce--but nothing else. While Brother Edik is inexplicably moved by the child, wishing only to nurse her back to health, his superiors are not so beguiled, especially when they learn the shocking and illegal fact that she, a girl, can read and write. 

An orphan boy named Jack Dory shows up at the monastery on an errand to find a monk who can write a record of a soldier's wartime crimes so that the man may "have some forgiveness" before he dies. The brothers send Beatryce--head shaved, dressed in robes--masquerading as a monk. Their fervent hope is that she will never return. The two children, each bereft of family, embark (along with the fiercely protective goat, Answelica) on an adventure none could have foretold.

With her trademark lyrical language and flair for storytelling, DiCamillo (Flora & Ulysses; Because of Winn-Dixie) writes like a patient knitter untangling a ball of yarn as she knits. Themes of love, grief, justice and identity loop together, interlocking as each character finds their way. Throughout Beatryce's own journey, two mysterious, barely remembered lines keep emerging from the depths of her past:

 "We shall all, in the end, be led to where we belong. We shall all, in the end, find our way home." "And shouldn't home be the place where you are allowed to be yourself, loved as yourself?"  --Emilie Coulter

And aren't those insightful words to be left with?

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