Information Please

When I was younger one of my favorite books was the Information Please: Kids Almanac.  It was a gift from my aunt and uncle and I LOVED it!  It had sections like weird and wacky laws, the human body, and history.  I read it cover to cover at least a hundred times.  In fact I still own it and occationally crack it open.  I say all that to say this. 



My Kids Almanac well loved and well worn



If Laura Amy Schlitz's Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village had been published when I was a child it would have beat out the kids almanac. This book is a collection of poem, dailogues, and short stories all set in a typical medieval village.  Whats great is that it was written to be performed.  Schlitz was a librarian doing a unit on Medieval England and she wanted her students to have something to perform.  But nobody wants a small part-so monologues and 2-person dialogues were written so each student would have a speaking part. 

Each section represents a different person in the village, the miller, the farmer, the knight, the orphan, the moneylender etc.  But what is really great, especially for nerds like me, is that any jargon is explained on the side of the page and then there are full page write ups explaining the role of that person in the village on the adjacent page.  Its sooo great.  I'm totally nerding out about this book (in case you couldn't tell).

Also Robert Byrd's illustrations add so much to this book.  You have to read it because there is no way this post can capture how great the book is as a whole.

Not settling for a small part and getting something great...that's kids stuff.