Newbery Honor-winning author Gail Carson Levine shares a story of family, prejudice, faith, and unlikely friendship in medieval England, for every child who is more perceptive than they seem, and braver than they know.
Chera, Lummie, and Joan are unusual in medieval Winchester, England. Two girls and a boy, and two Jews and a Christian are not supposed to be friends. Most days, after their studies with Rabbi Baruch, they enjoy scaring themselves in the greatly feared nearby forest, home to ne’er-do-wells and sprites, where they make another unusual friend, a starving outlaw.
But the trio’s fun is shattered when Chera’s grandmother, a wealthy widow, and Joan’s mother, her maid, are murdered. Jurors name a suspect, who flees the city, and he may not have killed them anyway. Almost anyone could have, so just investigating isn’t enough. What’s more, the Unusuals are sure Lummie’s grandmother will be the next to die.
They concoct a perilous plan, which needs allies to succeed, but everyone else thinks their idea is dizzy—crazy. With lives in the balance, this trio of friends must band together against the odds and call on their unusual bonds to help seek justice.---from the publisher
336 pages 978-0063325111 Ages 10-13
Keywords: historical fiction, medieval times, England, friendship,faith, murder, mystery and detective, working together, Jewish, Christian, anti-Semitism, justice, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old
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“Decrees that ordered Jews to wear special badges for purposes of identification were not exclusive to the Nazi era. Over the course of more than ten centuries, Muslim caliphs, medieval bishops, and, eventually, Nazi leaders used an identifying badge to mark Jews. Decrees ordering identifying badges were rarely isolated acts. They were often part of a series of Anti-Jewish measures designed to segregate Jews from the rest of the population and reinforce their inferior status.”
– Holocaust Encyclopedia
“Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Livin' life in peace”
– John Lennon
“Two men sat on a bench outside the Grey Crane Tavern, holding tankards. One stuck his foot out to trip me, but I saw in time and swerved away. Did he do it to tease a Jew?
After I’d gone only a few more steps I heard a braying cry. ‘Is that Alice’s girl? Oho! Your companion is a boy!’
I ran back. Joan and Lummie faced the men outside the tavern. I stood with them.
The braying man smiled at her, revealing a chipped front tooth under a brown mustache that covered his upper lip. A sheathed sword lay across his lap.
I wished God would make Lummie’s and my Jew badges disappear.
‘Yes, Roger the Fighter,’ Joan said. ‘Alice is my mother.’
‘She’s a pretty lady. Tell her I said so.’ He patted the sword in his lap. ‘Tell her I’ll likely soon be fighting in Wales.’
Joan nodded.
Roger’s friend put down his tankard and stood. He proved to be tall and crooked, with his left shoulder stuck higher than his right. ‘Does your mother know you’re frollicking with Jews?’
‘Yes.’ Joan rose on her toes. I knew she was angry, and she was a spitfire like Grandame.
‘Leave the Jews, girl!’ Roger said. ‘It’s bad enough your mother works for one.’ He reached for her without standing up.
Joan jumped back. ‘I’d rather be with them than with either of you!’ She shouted for everyone to hear: ‘I like Jews!’
I ran again and Joan and Lummie followed. Shoemaker’s Street ended at the city’s north wall near Northgate, where I waited for them. We weren’t supposed to leave the city, but the streets weren’t comfortable for Jewish children. We’d played in the chalkland beyond the gate since last year.
No one was waiting at the gate (really a short tunnel). The toll had to be paid only to enter the city, and children didn’t have to pay at all. The tunnel stank of pigs, sheep, geese, and people who didn’t care much for bathing.”
The self-named group The Unusuals are this trio of super-close friends in 1277 Winchester England. Chera, the granddaughter of a widowed pawnbroker, is the story’s narrator. She’s Jewish, as is Lummie, the grandson of another widowed pawnbroker. Joan is the daughter of Alice, who is Chera’s grandmother’s Christian maid and confidante. Together, they’re the tightest of friends.
According to the author, Winchester, England was once known as the Jerusalem of the Jews in England. THE UNUSUALS is a captivating piece of historical fiction, set in 1277 Winchester, England, that revolves around a real, historic murder mystery.
“In 1277, the most significant and historically documented murders in Winchester, England, were those of the prominent Jewish businesswoman Licoricia of Winchester and her Christian servant, Alice of Bicton. The high-profile unsolved killings sparked a major medieval mystery and remain widely studied by historians. The attack occurred in the spring of 1277 at Licoricia's home on Jewry Street.”
— Google AI
The book contains a map and a Cast of Characters. (There are quite a few.) It’s important to keep everyone straight as you try to figure out who might turn out to be responsible for the murders.
THE UNUSUALS is both a very fun suck-you-in mystery read for tweens, and a disquieting lesson for young people about how anti-Semitism was and is a seemingly-never-ending prejudice, not just a Nazi-era blight on humanity.
Recommended by: Richie Partington, MLIS, California USA
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