Matilda Bone

By Karen Cushman and Adam Gidwitz

Newbery Medal-Winning Author: A sheltered, self-involved girl finds herself apprenticed to a bonesetter in medieval England in a tale “laced with humor” (Kirkus Reviews).

Into the fascinating, pungent setting of Blood and Bone Alley, home of leech, barber-surgeon, and apothecary, comes Matilda, raised by a priest to disdain worldly affairs and focus on spiritual matters. To Matilda’s dismay, her work will not involve Latin or writing, but practical tasks: lighting the fire, going to market, mixing plasters and poultices, and helping Peg treat patients. She is appalled by the worldliness of her new surroundings, and the sharp-tongued saints she turns to for advice are no help at all. 

Filled with the witty dialogue and richly authentic detail that Karen Cushman’s work is known for, Matilda Bone is a compelling comic novel about a girl who learns to see herself and others clearly, to laugh, and to live contentedly in this world. 

“Will capture readers’ imaginations and hearts.” —VOYA

“This humorous, frank look at life in the medical quarters in medieval times shows readers that love and compassion, laughter and companionship, are indeed the best medicine.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 16, 2000
• ISBN: 9780547533230

Karen Cushman

Karen Cushman's acclaimed historical novels include Catherine, Called Birdy, a Newbery Honor winner, and The Midwife's Apprentice, which received the Newbery Medal. She lives on Vashon Island in Washington State. Visit her online at karencushman.com and on Twitter @cushmanbooks.

Book preview

Thanks to Nancy Helmbold, Professor Emeritus, Department of Classical Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago, for help with Latin, and to Robbie Cranch for her arcane knowledge, willing help, and constant friendship.

Copyright © 2000 by Karen Cushman

Introduction copyright © 2020 by Adam Gidwitz

Educator resources additional content © 2006 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [e-mail] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

hmhbooks.com

Cover illustration © 2020 by Maria Ukhova

Cover design by Celeste Knudsen

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Cushman, Karen.

Matilda Bone / Karen Cushman.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

Summary: Fourteen-year-old Matilda, an apprentice bonesetter and practitioner of medicine in a village in medieval England, tries to reconcile the various aspects of her life, both spiritual and practical.

[1. Physicians—Fiction. 2. Medicine—History—Fiction. 3. Middle Ages—Fiction. 4. England—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.C962Mat 2000

[Fic]—dc21 00-024032

CIP AC

ISBN: 978-0-395-88156-9 hardcover

ISBN: 978-0-358-09752-5 paperback

eISBN 978-0-547-53348-3

v4.0321

Dedicated to the memory of my fathers,

Arthur Lipski and Alvin Cushman,

and of Dorothy Briley

Introduction

by Adam Gidwitz

Here are the kinds of people who should read Matilda Bone:

Kids who like stories about the Middle Ages.

Kids who like funny stuff.

Kids who like gross stuff.

Kids who like stories about kids growing wiser and stronger.

Kids who like great writing.

Adults who like any of the above.

Also people who want to be writers and want to learn from a master.

And last, anyone who wants to learn about the world we live in right now.

Allow me to explain.

If you like stories about the Middle Ages, Karen Cushman is a great author to read, because she has written a ton of excellent books about the Middle Ages. She makes you feel as if you are on the dirt roads and muddy streets, hearing the happy chatter of butchers or watching someone pop the boils on their skin (I told you: gross stuff). Also, she knows things that you don’t find in history books. For example, raisins were like candy to kids back then. How does Karen Cushman know that? Who knows? But it must be true. It just feels so true.

If you like funny stuff, you’ll like Matilda Bone, because it’s seriously funny. Like when Matilda calls on a saint for help, and he replies, I understand your unhappiness, for I too was left in a cold, dark tomb. Of course, I was dead. Have courage. Or that Matilda’s regular curse word is Latin for Mucus saliva! (Again: gross stuff!)

If you like gross stuff, read the two preceding paragraphs again. This book also contains a very realistic depiction of a bleeding with leeches. If you’re squeamish, you should skip that page. For everyone else, enjoy!

As for growing wiser and stronger: Matilda is a wonderful character, but you may not like her at first. This is one of the qualities that make Matilda Bone such an excellent and unique book. Remember: all people grow and change. Especially young people. Watch Matilda and wait. (Even if you don’t like her at first, she’ll still make you laugh.)

I said that this is a book for kids who like great writing. You may not think you are very worried about whether writing is great, or good, or so-so. You may just want a story to go ripping along. But you do care about good writing, even if you’re not aware of it. Because good writing isn’t all about vivid descriptions of the physical world (though Karen Cushman is excellent at that), or scenes that make you cry (though she can do that when she wants to). Good writing is about combining all the elements of a good book so seamlessly that the reader doesn’t even think about it. You’re laughing, you’re engaged in the story, you’re transported by a description of the town, and then you’re worried that one character might make a big mistake . . . all those things happen, and you don’t think once about the writing. That’s good writing.

So, Matilda Bone is good for kids who like the Middle Ages, who like funny stuff, who like gross stuff, who like characters who grow, and who like good writing. And for adults who like those things.

Reading Matilda Bone would also be smart if you like to write. Karen Cushman is a master of the art of writing. Her timing, her balance of description and action, the richness of her worlds, the complexity of her characters. You could take a class on writing, or you could just read this book very carefully. Maybe read it twice.

Okay, last point. Matilda Bone takes place in the Middle Ages. And yet it’s got a lot to tell us about right now. Matilda has been taught to believe a lot of things. She believes that her teacher, Father Leufredus, is always right. She believes there is one right way to worship God. She also seems to believe that men are better than women in just about every way.

You, dear reader, have many beliefs. So do I. Some of them are true. Some are not.

Everyone in the world is in this position. Your parents, your principal, your president. Everyone. We all think we know things—and many of those things are wrong.

Over the course of this book, Matilda Bone grows out of her mistaken beliefs. I hope the people who live in the world today—starting with you, dear reader, and me, too—will grow out of theirs as well.

Chapter One

Arriving

Matilda stood before the scarred wooden door and stared at the bright-yellow bone painted there. Obviously I am here, she said softly, "and Deus misereatur, Lord have mercy on me."

Just a short while ago she had been mounted safe behind Father Leufredus as they had entered the stone gates of the darkening town. Then Father Leufredus said, This is Blood and Bone Alley. I must leave you here. Nine shops along, I am told, is the place of Red Peg the Bonesetter, which will be your home now. He helped her off the horse. "Bene vale, he said, switching to Latin. Farewell, Matilda. Remember all I have taught you, about right and wrong, sin and Hell, and the evils of joy and pleasure. Do always as you think I would have you do, remember your Latin, and pray ceaselessly." He blessed her and rode quickly on. She was alone.

Please, Father, she had longed to shout at his retreating back, please do not leave me here. She had wanted to say, All my life you have stood between me and a world you say is dangerous and evil. How can you leave me now? She thought to ask Saint Balbina to inflict him with boils and rashes so that he could not ride away from her, but knowing that he was a holy priest and she should obey him, she said only, Yes, Father, as she had been taught, then added softly, Remember to come back for me when you return from London.

Now he was gone and she stood, reluctant to go any farther. Things were going to happen, unknown things in this unknown place, and she was all unwilling and all alone. Never in her fourteen years had she been alone, there being the priest and the manor servants, the coming and going of cooks and clerks and chambermaids. And the saints, always the saints, who responded when called upon, like Saint Maurus, who had once told an unwilling Matilda, I was able to walk on water when commanded to by my abbot. Obedience is all; or Saint Augustine, who helped her to subdue her evil will whenever her wishes came into conflict with those of Father Leufredus. As she remembered, tears with the salty taste of winter herring slid slowly down her cheeks.

She turned and looked up and down the alley, searching for deliverance. It was a mere stub of a street off Frog Road, pocked with potholes and spattered with garbage, lined with narrow houses and shops of two stories in need of paint and repair. Many of the shops were stalls with shutters that opened upward to make an awning and down to make a counter, as was common, but some—like this one—had real, solid wooden doors, as if what went on inside was too secret and mysterious to take place in the open. There was no deliverance here.

She shivered, battered by the icy wind. Thin and small, with long yellow braids and large, wary, sea-green eyes, she stood, carrying nothing but a bundle with a change of linen—no Sunday kirtle or surcoat, no poppet or other plaything, nothing of her mother or her father or of the priest who had raised her.

Staring again at the bright-yellow bone on the door, she thought, Bonesetter. I am to assist a bonesetter. What would this bonesetter person be like? She imagined a saintly figure, soft-spoken and learned, who healed with but a touch of her pale, thin hands. More likely, though, the bonesetter was an ancient crone, bony and wizened, with hairy moles on her chin and cheeks, and implements of torture all about her—racks and chains and huge wooden mallets with which to crush. . . . Matilda stopped imagining and shuddered with dread. Oh, spit and slime, she said, for they seemed the best words to express her feelings. Spit and slime, which in Latin was saliva mucusque. It pleased her so well that she said it again, "Saliva mucusque," as she kicked at the wall of the shop with her big boot.

Come, called a voice from within.

What had she done? The bonesetter had heard her. Matilda could picture her on the other side of the door, fingering the hairy mole on her chin.

Come! demanded the voice.

Matilda shifted her bundle, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

The tiny shop had a swept-dirt floor and was heated by coals glowing in a small iron brazier. There was a dark, shabby front room with table, benches, and bed with a blue coverlet, and another room beyond. The air was warm and dusty and smelled of wood smoke, sausages, goose grease, and lemon balm. Matilda entered, bumping her head against a forest of clamps and pulleys sprouting from the low ceiling. Implements of torture, just as she had imagined!

Suddenly she was grabbed from behind and swung around, her feet flying and her breath squeezed from her chest before she was plumped back onto the floor.

I have been waiting for you, girl! shouted a large figure looming over her.

Matilda crossed herself and backed away.

What is wrong? said the voice. I am Red Peg. Are you not the Matilda come to help me?

I am Matilda, and you frightened me, the girl whispered. I feared I had been snatched by the Devil.

Do not be such a milksop. None but Peg to grab you here. Now, come and let me see you. By Theodoric the Anti-Pope, you’re as welcome as the loaves and fishes. Peg moved Matilda into the weak light from the fire and peered at her. You seem healthy enough, if a bit puny. And it’s a right sweet-looking little polliwiggle you are, with them great green eyes and a chin like God Himself had cupped it in His hand, Peg said, but you’re thin as an eel in winter.

Polliwiggle? Eel? "I am no

Reviews for Matilda Bone

[jennybeast · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[mutantpudding · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting but not enjoyable. I disliked Matilda at the beginning for being so limp and priggish - then I began to seriously dislike Father L for messing her up so badly. What did he have in mind, or did he even think about her future? Happy ending (or at least hopeful), eventually, but it was a real slog getting there. The stuff about medieval medicine was interesting - mostly I knew it, but as dry facts. Having characters live it made it much richer. Glad I read it, I might read more by her, but I don't think I'll ever want to reread this.

[foggidawn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[keebrook · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[satyridae · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[bunwat_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[daisyacg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[bluemopitz_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent story about an apprentice to a bone setter in medieval Europe.Could be used to learn about early European medicine or apprenticeship.

[ankhet_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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.

[jaie22 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

More a kids book than the YA I've called it. Therefore, ended far too quickly for my taste.