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Have I mentioned how badly I’ve slacked at reading last year’s Newberys? I read the one that was basically a long picture book, but the other three were all close to (or over) 300 pages, and life just feels BUSY, you know? I am, however, very pleased to report that I’ve managed to finish the second of last year’s four in the same month that–ahem–this year’s winners were announced.
No, I’m not being sarcastic. I’m owning it. Why not?
Anyway.
Adam Gidwitz’s The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog was not at all what I expected. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to reading it when it won (I tend to avoid the Middle Ages in my fiction, overall), and I started it when I did because I was hoping that the illustrations would make it a shorter choice than some of the others I was considering. (They didn’t, not really.) But once I’d started it…wowsers. Gidwitz sucked me in and started blowing me away.
How does one review a book that packs so MUCH into 337 pages? (Not counting the author’s notes at the end, which were long AND fascinating.) It’s at once hilarious and heartbreaking. It has quite the contemporary feel–the people feel like regular people–and yet the medieval setting is magnificently created. It occasionally flirts with crude humor, but how many books for kids in the 21st century debate religion and the motivations of God? The very essence of the plot is based in faith. Possibly Gidwitz has a bit of Kate DiCamillo’s gift for blending the mundane with the cosmic (I’m thinking The Tale of Despereaux here); the concept of martyrdom is one of the book’s major themes, while a peculiarly potent French cheese is an ongoing metaphor for life (and a key plot device).
Blech. I sound like I’m writing a paper on it, when what I want to say is that Gidwitz’s book wowed me. Humor, fear, suspense, love, the reality and nature of God–it’s like a cup full to the very brim, and yet so well written and focused that not a drop spills over. It’s the kind of good that needs to be read, especially now. It’s strange and sad and funny and awe-inspiring and kind of amazing, and why are you still reading my late-night ramblings when you could be reading The Inquisitor’s Tale? Go get it and get started.
I’m going to bed.