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''The Midwife's Apprentice'' is a children's novel by Karen Cushman. It tells of how a homeless girl becomes a midwife's apprentice—and establishes a name and a place in the world, and learns to hope and overcome failure. This novel won the John Newbery Medal in 1996. Mary Beth Dunhouse, chair of the Newbery Award Selection Committee, wrote of the book, "The reader is drawn in from the first sentence when the author speaks of a 'rotting and moiling heap. 'And this is when the reader meets the central character, Brat--'unwashed, unnourished, unloved, and unlovely... who dreamed of nothing, for she hoped of nothing and expected nothing.' This homeless waif becomes the midwife's apprentice--a person with a name and a place in the world. Medieval England is well-evoked, and readers will find this world so compelling that they will keep turning pages to see what happens next." In an interview in Scholastic Magazine, Ms. Cushman says, "The book took about 9 months to write, the same length of time it takes to make a child. Interesting, huh? I had done a lot of research on the Middle Ages for Catherine, Called Birdy, so I knew a lot about the time and place. The research I did was for specific about childbirth, herbs, and healing." ==Plot== In medieval England, a homeless orphan girl who has no name, and can only recall having been named Brat, attempts to nestle in a warm dung heap on a cold night. She wakes up to the taunts of village boys, and a woman asks her if she's alive. Seeing that Brat is willing to work in exchange for food, the woman, Jane "Sharp", takes her on as her apprentice, and renames her "Beetle" but does not teach Beetle about midwifery for fear of competition. The midwife is greedy and cruel, but she has a monopoly on her services, and the villagers, unable to take their anger out on the midwife, take it out on Beetle. Alyce befriends a little homeless orphan boy. She names him Edward after the King, and tells him to go to the manor where they can give him food and a job. Jane goes to help a woman in labor and while she is caring for the woman with the help of Alyce, word arrives that the Lady of the Manor is also in labor. Jane abandons the new mother to Alyce's care to attend the richer woman. Alyce is very gentle and kind to the woman and successfully delivers the baby, and the grateful parents pay her instead of Jane, which angers the midwife. In appreciation for her help, the new mother names the child "Alyce Little." Shortly after this, a woman's son comes to Alyce asking her, not Jane, to deliver her baby. This turns out to be a much more difficult birth, and Alyce fails and is overwhelmed by her inability to help the woman. Jane sweeps in and presides over the birth, and Alyce flees, not wanting to endure the shame. She leaves the town, bringing her cat with her. In another town she comes to an inn where the owner gives Alyce work in exchange for food. The innkeeper becomes fond of Alyce. A scholar from Oxford, staying for the winter, teaches Alyce how to read. Some time passes and Alyce misses the little boy she named Edward and wants to find out how he is faring. She returns to the village to check on him, and finds that he has been supported without working. Their reunion is like that of a brother and sister—Alyce's first "family." Alyce tells him to work properly and stop just playing around, and she returns to the inn. After sometime at the inn, she learns what she truly wants is to be a midwife so she returns to the village with a new sense of self purpose and asks to be the midwife’s apprentice again. Through the course of the book, Alyce transforms from a nameless, "worthless" nonentity into a young woman who has friends, skills, a name, a cat and a future. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Midwife's Apprentice」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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