Author(s): Kate DiCamillo

Junior Fiction | Marianne's Book Talkers

A magical medieval tale from two masters, Newbery Medal-winning Kate DiCamillo and Caldecott Medal-winning Sophie Blackall – a fantastical meditation on fate, love and the power of words to spell the world. We shall all, in the end, be led to where we belong. We shall all, in the end, find our way home. In a time of war, a mysterious child appears at the monastery of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing. Gentle Brother Edik finds the girl, Beatryce, curled in a stall, wracked with fever, coated in dirt and blood and holding fast to the ear of Answelica the recalcitrant goat. As the monk nurses Beatryce to health, he uncovers her dangerous secret – one that imperils them all. And so it is that a girl with a head full of stories must venture into a dark wood in search of the castle of a king who wishes her dead. But should she lose her way, Beatryce knows that those who love her – a wild-eyed monk, a man who had once been king, a boy with a terrible sword and a goat with a head as hard as stone – will never give up searching for her. And to know this is to know everything.

CONSTANT READER STAFF REVIEW: MARIANNE

A new Kate DiCamillo is always a treat, because her books are wise and thoughtful and full of heart.

The Beatryce Prophesy is no exception, taking us into an imagined world something like the Middle Ages, in which a girl on the run falls asleep next to a very aggressive goat in the barn of a monastery, and a great adventure unfolds.

Our hero remembers nothing about herself but her first name, and how to read and write (a secret that must be closely guarded, as that skill is forbidden to girls and women in this kingdom). She dons a disguise and bravely sets off – with some new friends and a goat in tow – to find her past, tell a story, and unseat a king.

An adventure story with a fairy tale feel for the upper primary/early high school crowd about the power of words to change a world.