This book was not what I was expecting. I mainly picked it up because it had lots of pictures in the margins and because of the subtitle: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog. Who WOULDN’T want to read about a holy dog?
This young adult book may not have a high Lexile score (only a 620) but it feels harder because of the time period and the setting of the book. It’s set in 1242 France. King Louis has declared a war against these three children and their dog, and people want to know why. A man stops by an inn one night to ask if anyone knows about the children, which launches into an all-night story about where the children came from, what miracles they have done, and how they banded together.
The story is told in many different voices, from town peasants to troubadours to a curiously all-knowing nun. The change in voice is easy to follow, since the author has bolded the words spoken at the inn that are not a part of the storytelling. The chapters are also visual clues as to who is talking, since the titles all relate back to the current storyteller. I feel this adds to the authenticity of the story and and unique voice.
Another positive part of this story is the message: how you can work together, in goodness, even with people who believe differently than you. Jeanne (loosely based on Joan of Arc) is a poor peasant with no education, just the ability to see visions of the future. Jacob is a Jewish boy in a kingdom where Christians were literally going to war to wipe out the heathen religions. William (based on the legend of Guilhem) is a monk-in-training whose father is a Christian crusader and whose mother is an African Muslim, which makes his black in a very, very white France. Finally, Gweneforte (based on a real story from an inquisitor’s story) is the dog of Jeanne who died because of a misunderstanding, then came back to life. The whole point of their friendship is to showcase their diversity and how they overcame their differences to become friends.
The difficult parts to understand about this book is the time period. There isn’t a whole lot of Middle Ages literature for juvenile and young adult readers that are more historical fiction than fantasy. Because the time period isn’t one that’s well explored, some of the words used may need to be explained to younger readers (like what is an inquisitor, a martyr, crusade, the Talmunds, or an oblate?).
Also, some of the situations seem a little forced or added purely for juvenile comic relief. For example, the children get captured at one point and must defeat a dragon to get free. This isn’t an ordinary dragon; this dragon has noxious farts that make you catch on fire. Silly to me, but may be entertaining for a ten-year-old. Also, they use the word “ass” multiple times instead of the word “donkey”. This could be a time period thing, but the first time it’s purposefully meant to be comical, but after that it just seems overused. For a book with such strong religious morals, it just seemed a little out of place.
The pictures, or illuminations, throughout fit with the time period as well and add to the story. Overall, it’s a winding tale. I wanted to love it more than I did.
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