Critical Review Forest Wife

Meredith Sutphin INLS 532: Children’s Literature 10/9/07 The Forestwife: A Critical Review Tomlinson, Theresa. The Forestwife. New York: Orchard Books, 1995. 170 pages. ISBN 0531094502 Selection Sources: Best Books for Middle School and Junior High Readers, 2004. p. 138. Best Books for Young Teen Readers, 2000. p. 110. Children’s Fiction Sourcebook, 2nd Edition, 1995. p. 202. Reading Level: Grades 4 - 6 Plot Synopsis: Mary de Holt, about to be forced into a marriage she does not want, decides to run away to the dangerous woods to escape her fate. Her old nursemaid, Agnes, follows her and becomes her companion, and she leads the girl to a place of refuge known to the local common folk: the house of the Forestwife, the witch in the woods who heals the sick and protects the people who suffer under the harsh rule of the gentry. However, they find the Forestwife dead in her cottage, and Agnes takes up the role, with Mary, now renamed “Marian” to hide her identity, as her helper. The Forestwife’s cottage gains many new inhabitants as Agnes and Marian help a young mother who gives birth to a stillborn baby, a woman who is being tortured in a metal yoke in the village, and a group of nuns imprisoned in their own cloisters for being too outspoken and eccentric. Marian discovers Agnes’s wounded outlaw son, Robert, and though the two do not get along at first, Robert and his gang of other outlaws help the women by bringing them food and helping them escape capture when they hunt deer illegally during a brutally harsh winter. Marian and Robert begin to fall in love, and Marian saves Robert’s life by making a dangerous journey to the coast to heal him when he is wounded while fighting for King Richard. But when Marian returns, she finds that Agnes has died, and Marian sadly assumes the role of Forestwife, knowing that she has a duty to the people, even though it means that she cannot marry Robert. Review: This book would be especially engaging for girls, for Tomlinson’s forest is filled with female characters young and old, and each of them shows a different face of women’s experiences in the Middle Ages. Here, “the hero of the story is not the prince of thieves, but Marian, who becomes the benevolent Green Lady of the forest;” The Forestwife tells the familiar Robin Hood legend from what has traditionally been a secondary female perspective (Booklist). However, it is Tomlinson’s portrayal of Marian’s inner reflections that makes the experiences of women accessible for young girls to identify with; though Marian herself is not a young mother or a cloistered nun, she feels empathy towards these women and explores their situations in her thoughts. Tomlinson’s skill at weaving the story through Marian’s thoughts makes the story shine as a personal tale about growing up as well as a Medieval adventure, and this depth makes it an engaging book. However, Tomlinson often seems to be pushing an awareness of differences

between now and then on her readers; her use of Middle English words make the story feel stilted and awkward at times. Also, the pre-Christian elements she uses are inserted into the story in ways that sometimes seem artificial and draw one’s attention away from the actual tale to author’s structuring of the tale, which disrupts the reading experience and detracts from the book. Even though some of its elements of historical fiction are not done as well as they might be, this book is such an interesting and entertaining example of a Medieval story from a female perspective that it would be a valuable addition to a collection. Particularly, it has value as a story that deals with the sometimes harsh realities of Medieval life rather than being a fanciful tale with a Medieval veneer: “Tomlinson focuses on the afflicted common folk, ground down by misfortune and injustice,” and the situation of the common people could serve as a springboard for discussion in a history class (Kirkus). It could be accompanied by Robin McKinley’s Outlaws of Sherwood for higher reading levels, paired with Cushman’s Catherine Called Birdy and The Midwife’s Apprentice for a “Women in the Middle Ages” unit, or be used in creative writing classes as inspiration for writing from the perspective of a secondary character in a familiar folktale. Reviews: Booklist. March 1, 1995. p. 1241 Kirkus Reviews. March 15, 1995. p. 397. School Library Journal. March 1995. p. 225-226.