This was a very interesting children’s book that takes place in 14th century England. This story is about a 13 year old boy (who initially is only known as the Son of Asta) who is forced out of the life that he knows after the death of his mother. The steward of the town puts a bounty on his head and the Son of Asta is forced to leave the town suddenly in order to survive (but not before learning that he was christened with the name of Crispin) . After he is forced to leave the town he knows, he meets a very intimidating charters known as Bear. Bear initially takes the boy as a servant and then later brings him on as an apprentice and freely begins to love him like a son.
Along the journey with Bear, Crispin begins to ask question about why he was shunned, why the steward declared him a world’s head, why his mother told him so little about her past and his father’s past. Crispin and Bear are forced to make several narrow escapes from the steward to finally learn the truth why the steward wants him dead.
Along his journey the book explores the struggling class system, the powers of the government and the people’s need for a revolution. This was an incredibly well written and very interesting book. I found the historical pieces of it to be quite astounding. The take touched upon many different aspects of the 14th century feudal system. This was a very good use of interacting how people could have during this time. If I were a teacher teaching this subject matter I would definitely have my class read this book and have them make comparisons with the in class text.
