School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-The year is 1242; the setting: a roadside inn on the outskirts of a small French town. Travelers from all corners of France share what they know about the country's most notorious outlaws: a group of three children and their dog. Jeanne is a peasant girl able to see the future. William is a young monk with unusual physical strength and intelligence. Jacob is a Jewish boy who possesses powerful healing abilities. The final member of the group is Gwenforte, the holy greyhound. These unlikely friends find themselves on the run from monks, demons, dragons, knights, and the king of France himself as they try to escape persecution and save religious books from being burned. Each traveler who is gathered at the inn recounts a different piece of the children's story, creating a Canterbury Tales-like narrative structure. The audiobook is voiced by a cast of nine narrators, each telling a different character's part of the tale. Gidwitz himself voices the character of the Inquisitor. Thirteenth-century music and vocals by a renowned medieval musician bring the troubadour's part of the novel to life. An author's note at the end of the production shares the background research Gidwitz did to create this story and includes details about what parts of the tale are based on actual medieval history and which parts are fiction. VERDICT Mixing history and adventure, religion and humor, Gidwitz breathes new life into the Middle Ages and makes this time period accessible and exciting for middle grade listeners.-Anne Bozievich, Friendship Elementary School, Glen Rock, PA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1242 France, weary travelers at an inn exchange stories of their encounters with a group of three children accompanied by their dog who are set to be brought before the king for the threat they pose. The story is framed as an inquisition, with an agent of the king serving as the main narrator and questioning the travelers to discern the true nature of the children, who are rumored to have magical abilities. The structure lends itself clearly to the audio format, with one narrator acting as the interviewer while more than a half-dozen others take up the rest of the characters sharing the tales of these adventurers. It's more entertaining with multiple voices and it brings the conversational elements of the story to the forefront, but not always seamlessly; there are points in this production when it sounds as if the actors were all recorded separately and the dialogue pieced together later. Still, the variety of voice actors at work plays well with the story and makes for a lively listening experience. Ages 10-up. A Dutton hardcover. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
An ambitious mash-up of medieval saints lives, the Joan of Arc legend, thirteenth-century French history, and elements of The Canterbury Tales, Gidwitzs hopeful story of interreligious understanding is more fantasy than historical fiction. Three children with marvelous abilities band together and draw the ire of King Louis IX. Peasant Jeanne has visions of the future; William, illegitimate son of a crusader knight and an African Saracen, has supernatural strength; Jacob, a learned Jewish boy, has healing powers. Together they try to thwart King Louiss plan to burn all the Jewish texts in France, and thus the trio becomes the object of a countrywide hunt. Drinking together at an inn, an inquisitor, nun, Jewish butcher, jongleur, and several others relate the bits of the childrens adventure they knowa series of tales that make a single narrative. The historical improbabilities of the story are many (and seemingly intentional), but its qualities as miracle tale tip readers to its fantastical nature (witness the episode of the dragon with deadly farts). Gidwitz presents moral issues that are currently relevant, and gives several theological arguments about good and evil a brisk, accessible airing. Scatological humor, serious matter, colloquial present-day language, the ideal of diversity and mutual understandingthis has it all. deirdre f. baker (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Gidwitz leaves the fairy-tale realm of his Grimm trilogy behind and plunges into medieval France to tell the incredible story of three gifted children, a holy greyhound, and the people whose lives they touch. It is a time of miracles and saints, of fiends and dragons, all of which Gidwitz has meticulously teased from legends and histories of the Middle Ages. The story is relayed in the style of The Canterbury Tales, as travelers gathered at an inn share what they know of the children: Jeanne, a peasant girl with visions of the future; William, an African oblate with incredible strength; Jacob, a Jewish boy with healing powers; not to mention Gwenforte, their guardian greyhound. Religion lies at the book's heart, as Jewish and Christian beliefs come into conflict and the children's potential for sainthood is debated. It also triggers an act of defiance against the king that makes the miraculous threesome the most wanted people in France. Ten different narrators lend their voices to the tale including a brewster, nun, butcher, librarian, and troubadour while drinking a fair amount of ale, resulting in a boisterous, conversational tone. Gidwitz proves himself a nimble storyteller as he weaves history, excitement, and multiple narrative threads into a taut, inspired adventure. Though final artwork was unseen, the book will be fittingly illuminated with illustrations and marginalia. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The work put into the physical book should tell you the publisher's belief in best-seller Gidwitz's latest. Also: the national tour, the floor display, and all that.--Smith, Julia Copyright 2016 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
"WHERE DID THIS STORY COME FROM?" That's the title of the engaging, insightful and moving author's note to Adam Gidwitz's "The Inquisitor's Tale" - which I wish Gidwitz had not included. Because the novel alone, in the greatest of its many feats, tells us not just where this story comes from, but where all the best stories come from: an inquisitor chasing a tale deeper and deeper, closer and closer to the fire. The inquisitor, in this case, is a mysterious traveler in the year 1242 who arrives at a crowded inn north of Paris, seeking news of three children wanted by the king. Who are these children? Why would the king of France send his army after them? The inquisitor craves answers, and the townspeople, fueled by gossip and ale, are happy to oblige, each taking turns to hijack the narrative. Unlike the case of "The Canterbury Tales," which fishes from a pool of unrelated characters, here every tale propels the plot forward, revealing a composite of the three children: Jeanne, a peasant girl stricken with visions of the future; William, a biracial young monk with superhuman strength; and Jacob, a Jewish boy who can heal the wounded and sick. (Accompanying them is a holy dog named Gwenforte, who has apparently returned from the dead.) The inquisitor listens hungrily, determined to suss out whether these children are indeed saints who can perform miracles, or heretics rightly hunted by the king. But as the tales unfold, we begin to sense there are bigger wonders afoot. For one, as the stories place the children in increasingly surreal and preposterous-sounding adventures - featuring demon forests, a farting dragon, double-crossing knights, horse-devouring quicksand and a wicked queen mother - we readers begin to lose all sense of what's true and what's not, just like the inquisitor, who must contend with an entire inn full of unreliable narrators. For another, despite the competing motivations, perspectives, even dialects of the individual storytellers, a larger narrative magically takes hold - about three children divided by class, race and religion who find that in the search for the truth about God and the universe, perhaps friendship is the greatest marvel of all. What Gidwitz, the author of the Grimm trilogy, accomplishes here is staggering. "The Inquisitor's Tale" is equal parts swashbuckling epic, medieval morality play, religious polemic and bawdy burlesque, propelling us toward a whiteknuckle climax where three children must leap into a fire to save ... a Talmud. And yet, the rescue of this single book feels like higher stakes than any world-incinerating superhero battle. Part of this is because "The Inquisitor's Tale" is dense with literary and earthy delights, including Hatem Aly's exquisite illustrations, which wrap around the text as in an illuminated manuscript. Working together, the art and story veer exuberantly between the high and the low to make Jeanne, Jacob and William feel like flesh-and-blood children, despite their holiness. One moment William, a devout Christian, is arguing with Jacob over whether a Jewish writer is a pawn of the Devil; the next, Jeanne and Jacob are trying to survive a bout with smelly cheese. In both cases, the children grow beyond their initial judgments and prejudices because they're willing to listen to a friend. (Which raises the question: Are these children actually saints? Or are they saints because they're children?) Even the lighter moments - with the cheese, for instance, which turns out to hold the secret to curing the flatulent dragon - serve to illuminate a larger truth about both life and the book we hold in our hands: that in the midst of a story, we cannot see the bigger plan until we get to its very end. SOMAN CHAINANI is the author of the School for Good and Evil trilogy.
