Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

1995 Newbery Honor Book

Ratings Explanation

Language: Cursing and taking God’s name in vain. Birdy learns that the King’s curse of choice is “God’s Breath”, his son’s is “God’s Teeth”. After trying several on for size, Birdy chooses “God’s Thumbs” and uses it throughout the book. Piss and hell also used a handful of times.

Violence: At the hanging of two 12-year-old boys, Birdy flees but hears the cheering of the crowd as they are pushed from the platform. She is upset and vomits. Birdy’s father hits her often. He delivers “several hard blows” to her face. There is a brawl in the house during which a man is wounded and later dies.

Sexual Content: This is a tough one to rate because there is no actual account of any sexual activity, but there are frequent illusions to it. Several instances in which a girl is labeled a virgin or not, Birdy refers to marriage proposals as requests to “wed and bed”, put snow down a boy’s pants to “cool his passion”. A group is playing a blindfold game and a “shallow brained” girl disappears into the pantry each time it is her turn. All the young men follow her and none return to the game for minutes. Birdy’s brother is engaged to a 12-year-old girl and she becomes pregnant. Young people go out to gather willow branches in the Spring and Birdy predicts a big crop of babies come next Christmas.

Adult Themes: Birdy’s mother loses a baby. Birdy states that she hasn’t started her “monthly courses” yet so how can she be a wife. There is a lot of ale drinking and characters become drunk. As a young noble girl, Birdy has no say in whom she is to marry. Her father is completely unconcerned with  her personal happiness and tries to marry her off to the highest bidder.

Synopsis

7th day of April, Feast of Saint Goran, a hermit who lived in a cave in Cornwall, which must have been so cold and damp that only a saint could do it, or a fairy, or perhaps a giant.

Young Catherine chronicles a year in the day-to-day life of a 14-year-old girl in 13th century England through her journal entries in Karen Cushman’s Catherine, Called Birdy. Much of Birdy’s time is consumed with learning all the things a lady must know, including embroidery, laundry, and the healing arts, but she learns a lady must also “not look too proud nor yet too  humble, lest people say she is proud of her humility. She must not talk overmuch yet not be silent, lest people think she does not know how to converse. She must not show anger, nor sulk, nor scold, nor overeat, nor overdrink, nor swear.” Frustrated by all the expectations and restrictions, the feisty Birdy declares, “I am going out to the barn to jump, fart and pick my teeth!”

Old enough to be married off, she is forced to fend off the unsuitable suitors who disgust her with their looks, mannerisms, and stupidity. When her father settles on the rich “Shaggy Beard” for her husband, Birdy has met her match in stubbornness. Luckily her pregnant mother requests that Birdy be allowed to stay home and care for her until she gives birth. This gives Birdy time to plan an escape from the dreaded man who, according to Birdy is a “dog assassin whose breath smells like the mouth of Hell, who makes wind like others make music, who attacks helpless animals with knives, who is ugly and old!” Although the situation looks hopeless, never count Birdy out when it comes to a battle of wits and will.

I love Birdy! She is witty, clever and unrelenting in her endeavors. She is also capable of dealing with the consequences her actions invite — she is never fearful of what will happen when she speaks her mind. The journal format works wonderfully by allowing us a glimpse, not only into Catherine’s personal life, but also into the everyday food, religion, recreation and customs of the day. I was delighted to learn that young people polished bones and fastened them to their shoes so they could glide on the ice. One of the feasts in the book consisted of pig’s stomach stuffed with nuts and apples, herring with parsnips, and roasted and stuffed peacock with the tail feathers stuck back on.

Our family read this book aloud and it is now definitely a family favorite. As I read, I did edit out some of the sexually oriented comments in the book. A comprehensive Author’s Note gives additional information about medieval England and the author’s research.

A fun companion to this book would be Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices From a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz