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The Book of Boy

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The Book of Boy
By Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Greenwillow Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2018. 278 p.

This book is a lot of things all at once. First of all it is the story about Boy (yeah, that is his name) who is a hunchback that has lived through the bubonic plague. One day he meets a stranger who is also a pilgrim headed to Saint Peter’s Step to worship where one of the holy relics are. The stranger, named Secundus, ends up enlisting Boy to come and help him on his journey. At first Boy is nervous and a little worried to leave home…then Boy wants nothing more than to go on this journey. Of course being a novel readers soon find out that everything is not quite as it seems—and who knows what will happen in this mystery and quest all rolled into one epic adventure. Kids who like historical fiction (with a bit of fantastical spiritual elements) will enjoy reading about Boy and what happens to him. Those who get bored of medieval type of ideas, speech, and pilgrimages might struggle a bit—though the struggle is worth the reward of finishing this powerful story.
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