The Beatryce Prophecy

Review by Booklist Review

Father Edik's usual trepidation over approaching Answelica the goat's enclosure skyrockets upon seeing a sleeping girl there, clutching the foul-tempered creature's ear. This turns out to be Beatryce, a girl with no memory aside from her name, a girl who can read and write despite laws prohibiting such a thing, a girl about whom Father Edik believes he may have written in his order's prophetic Chronicles of Sorrowing: "There will one day come a girl child who will unseat a king and bring about a great change." It isn't long before word reaches the monastery that the king is also looking for Beatryce on account of the prophecy, so Father Edik disguises her as a monk and sends her off with Answelica, her fierce and loyal protector, and a bright boy from town named Jack Dory, who has an interesting story of his own. Somehow, DiCamillo manages to fit a medieval epic into just over 250 pages--and that includes many glorious black-and-white illustrations by Blackall that one can easily envision stitched upon a tapestry. DiCamillo fills her narrative with humor and love, never getting in the way of her characters (or Answelica's boney head) as they work through difficult choices and display many forms of bravery. It's a gently feminist tale where stories carry the same power as magic and are, perhaps, one and the same.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Rumor has it that this might be popular. And might win all the awards.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Set "during a time of war" when "terrible things happen everywhere," Newbery Medalist DiCamillo's engrossing medieval fable verges on darkness while examining what changes a world. When gentle Brother Edik finds young Beatryce in the monastery barn, she is covered in blood and dirt, plagued by fever, and holding the ear of the ferocious goat Answelica--who has until now terrorized the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing with her bites and butts. Upon emerging from her sickness, Beatryce recalls only her name and her ability to read and write, the latter a dangerous secret in a land where only a few people, solely men, are permitted those skills. Fearful of who might be searching for such a child--and of her possible connection to the prophecy of "a girl child who will unseat a king"--the monastery's brethren rid themselves of girl and goat, sending Beatryce away with protector Answelica. In the often-harrowing world, Beatryce encounters idiosyncratic individuals she can trust, each with a painful history that's rendered humanely in DiCamillo's deliberate third-person telling (characters default to white). Tenderly illuminated by Caldecott Medalist Blackall's atmospheric, fine-lined b&w art, this compassionate tale rejoices in "the wonder of being known," the protective powers of understanding one's identity, and the strength found in the hard head of a beloved goat. Ages 8--12. Author's agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. Illustrator's agent: Marietta Zacker, Gallt & Zacker. (Sept.)

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 3--6--The prophecy speaks of a girl who will unseat a king and change the world. It doesn't exactly mention a goat, but true prophecy will find a way to be fulfilled…especially if the hard-headed, and hard-butting, Answelica has anything to do with it. Brother Edik, a monk who illuminates manuscripts and pronounces the occasional prophecy (including the one about Beatryce), is startled to find a very sick girl curled up in the straw next to the monastery's irascible goat. He doesn't realize that the king is looking to capture this very girl; he takes her in and nurses her back to health. The goat refuses to leave Beatryce's side as she is eventually forced to leave the monastery and earn her way by writing (in a world where girls are not allowed to read and write), and ultimately by befriending others who help demonstrate that Beatryce is, in fact, the girl foretold to change everything. Hand to fans of Adam Gidwitz's The Inquisitor's Tale (although there are no farting dragons here). VERDICT DiCamillo's fantasy has no magic, but is a gentle tale of the power of love and the determination to do the right thing, even when that thing comes at great personal cost. Recommended for tweens in all library settings, both independent and read-alouds.--Elizabeth Friend, Wester M.S., TX

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Review by Horn Book Review

As this rich and absorbing novel opens, Brother Edik finds a sick girl in the barn of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing, curled up with the "demon goat" Answelica. The child recovers from her fever but has lost her memory, remembering only her name, Beatryce. Brother Edik and the other monks hide Beatryce and her talents as well: the ability to read and write, a "beautiful and agile mind," and a "dangerous will." Beatryce, it is revealed, is the girl named in a prophecy, destined to "unseat a king and bring about a great change." As Brother Edik tells her, "It is dangerous for you to be who you are...And so you must pretend to be someone you are not." The king and his counselor are on her trail, so she agrees to disguise herself, to have her hair shorn and wear a monk's robe. Soon, however, she must enter the world and, with Brother Edik, Answelica, and the orphan boy Jack Dory, begins a journey to take charge of her own destiny. The king's machinations are effectively delineated in bold font in brief sections to remind readers that evil is afoot. The pairing of two-time Newbery Medalist DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux, rev. 9/03; Flora Ulysses, rev. 9/13) and two-time Caldecott Medalist Blackall (Finding Winnie, rev. 9/15; Hello Lighthouse, rev. 3/18) is a magical alchemy. Blackall's black-and-white pencil drawings and ornamented initials convey a medieval setting, while DiCamillo's elegant, honed prose weaves a beautiful tapestry of true friends, a feisty goat, and a road to a castle where destiny will unfold. Dean Schneider September/October 2021 p.92(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

DiCamillo returns to fairy-tale mode with the story of a girl destined to unseat a king. One by one the players take the stage: Answelica, a fearsome goat whose teeth mirror her soul--"large, sharp, and uncompromising"; hapless Brother Edik, who sees beauty everywhere; Beatryce, a bedraggled child who arrives at the monastery knowing only her first name and who shocks the monks by being able to write; Jack Dory, an orphan with a gift for mimicry; and finally Cannoc, an old man who has given up everything except laughter. (There are bad people also, of course, because this story takes place during a time of war, but none of them are given proper names.) Cast out from the monastery and endangered by villains, they take refuge in the dark woods where Beatryce begins to remember more than her name and attempts to answer the question, "what world is this I now inhabit, and how shall I live in it?" The story is told in language as clear and beautiful as an illuminated manuscript, with characters who spring instantly to life. The fairy-tale conventions give it a sense of timelessness and omnipresence without once becoming twee or unwieldy. Blackall's luminous black-and-white illustrations and medieval-style spot art add to this feeling and are wonderful at conveying emotion through posture, pose, and delicate linework. Characters are described and drawn as White. A book with an angelic soul: large, sharp, and uncompromising. (Fairy tale. 8-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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It is written in the Chronicles of Sorrowing that one day there will come a child who will unseat a king. The prophecy states that this child will be a girl. Because of this, the prophecy has long been ignored. Book the First Answelica was a goat with teeth that were the mirror of her soul--large, sharp, and uncompromising. One of the goat's favorite games was to lull the monks of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing into a sense of complacency by arranging her features in a benign and indifferent expression. For weeks, she would bite no one. When approached, she would merely stare into the distance as if she were considering something profound. And then, when the brothers had relaxed their guard, thinking that perhaps, somehow, Answelica had changed, the goat would come from behind and butt them in the backside as hard as she was able. She was very strong, and she had a very hard head. Because of this, the goat was able to send the monks flying great distances through the air. When they landed, she bit them. She was a goat who formed peculiar and inexplicable antipathies, taking an intense dislike to certain individuals. She would stalk a particular brother, waiting for him in the purple shadow of a building, and then she would leap out and make an unholy noise that sounded like the scream of a demon. The monk--terrified, undone--would scream, too. The monk and the goat would then engage in a duet of screaming until the goat was satisfied and trotted away looking beatific, leaving behind her a trembling, weeping monk. The brothers of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing would have liked to butcher her, but they were afraid of the ghost of Answelica. The monks agreed among themselves that the ghost of the goat would surely be more vicious and determined, more impossible to outwit, than the flesh-and-blood goat. How would she seek her revenge from the afterworld? It beggared the imagination to consider what the ghost goat would do. And so she lived. Which is just as well. Which is, in fact, wonderful. Because without the goat, Beatryce surely would have died. And then where would we be? Chapter Two All of this took place during a time of war. Sadly, this does not distinguish it from any other time; it was always a time of war. Brother Edik was the one who found her. The world that morning was coated in a layer of hoarfrost, and the brother was late to the task of feeding Answelica because he had stood for too long admiring the light of the rising sun shining on the blades of grass and the branches of the trees. The whole world seemed lit from within. "Surely, it is evidence of something," Brother Edik said aloud. "Surely, such beauty means something." He stood and looked at the world until the cold made his hands ache and he came at last to his senses. He trembled as he entered the barn, certain that Answelica--displeased at his lateness--was already plotting against him. But he was surprised to find the goat asleep, her legs folded beneath her, her back to him. What new ploy was this? Brother Edik cleared his throat. He put down the bucket. Still, the goat did not move. He stepped closer. He gasped. His mind was playing tricks on him. Or rather it was his eye playing tricks--his left eye, which would not stay quiet and still, but rolled around in his head, looking for something it had yet to find. "Some demon occupies that eye," Brother Edik's father had said, "and that demon has made its way into your mind as well." And now, in the early-morning gloom of the barn, Brother Edik's wandering eye, his strange mind, was seeing a goat with two heads. "Have mercy upon us," whispered Brother Edik. Answelica with one head was already more than the brothers could bear. How could they live with the goat if she had two heads and two sets of teeth? She would upend the order of the universe. She would put the king from his castle. Answelica with two heads would be a creature capable of ruling the world. The brother took a tentative step forward. He squinted and saw that the other head belonged to a child curled up beside the goat. Brother Edik let out a sigh of relief. And then a new wave of terror engulfed him when he realized that the child had hold of one of the goat's ears. Excerpted from The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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