Crispin The Cross of Lead
In the England of 1377 a thirteen-year-old boy whose mother has just died is accused of theft by the steward of the manor and declared outside the protection of the law.
About
Crispin: The Cross of Lead is a novel for children by the American writer Avi, published in 2002. It is set in England in 1377, and it won the Newbery Medal in 2003.
The boy at the centre of it has been known all his life as Asta's Son, and he and his mother are peasants in the village of Stromford. He is thirteen years old. When she dies he is left with no family at all.
Very soon after the funeral the steward of the manor, John Aycliffe, accuses him of theft and declares him a wolf's head, which means that he is no longer considered a person and that anybody may kill him without penalty. There is also a reward for anybody who does.
What he has to do is get out of the village and stay alive, and the novel follows him as he takes a name of his own and tries to find out who his father was. It is the first of three books about the same boy.
Book details
- Author
- Avi
- First published
- 2002
- Series
- No series listed
- Subgenre
- Medieval fiction, Coming-of-age
- Primary genre
- Historical Fiction
- Tags
- No tags for this book.
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Baby Bat
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