Crispin: The Cross of Lead

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

This book was anything but light at the start.  Crispin's father died before his birth, his mom dies just before the starting page and his only friend, the priest, is murdered for associating with Crispin.  I put it down after 30 pages because it seemed to be going nowhere good.  I'm glad I picked it back up: it was a good read.

The setting is Europe in the 1300s and Crispin is one of many peasants living in brutal conditions, forced to work to their death in the limits of their township.  But Crispin is different, as hinted from the very beginning, and the book chronicles his many escapes from those seeking to kill him because of his unknown uniqueness.This book would be great for a first lesson in foreshadowing: within the first quarter of the book it was clear that Crispin had royal blood in him (though it took him 200 more pages to figure that out) but there was still an adventure as it was unclear who to trust and what would happen next.

The ending was not as I imagined, though perhaps fitting given the characters.  Perhaps above all it was enlightening for me to read about the situations of the peasants and lords in the Middle Ages; though I recognize it is fiction, reading about the times helps me better appreciate what the real situation must have been.