Pagan's Scribe: Book Four of the Pagan Chronicles
Grade 8 Up–There have been few characters in recent historical fiction more vibrant than the street-smart, fast-talking protagonist of this series. InPagan's Crusade(2003),Pagan in Exile(2004), andPagan's Vows(2004, all Candlewick), orphaned Pagan joins the Knights Templar in a desperate attempt to escape the mean streets of Jerusalem and becomes squire to Lord Roland. He follows his master back to his home in southern France and joins him in a monastery when Roland renounces his crude family. In this fourth volume, a young, bookish clerk, Isidore, takes up the narrative. Pagan is 20 years older, now Archdeacon of Carcassonne, and enlists Isidore to serve as his scribe. Pagan's acerbic wit and sharp logic are needed by local lords to argue their case before a marauding army of frustrated Crusaders, turned against their own countrymen to search out heretics. Isidore's breathless description of the often-violent and chaotic world around him creates a page-turning epic. Readers who already know Pagan will be fascinated to see him as an adult, with the same fierce loyalty for his friends and caustic anger that he exhibited as a teen. He develops a protective fondness for Isidore, helping him cope with the epilepsy that is too little understood in medieval France. Pair this book with Kevin Crossley-Holland'sKing of the Middle March(2004) and Frances Temple'sThe Ramsay Scallop(1994, both Scholastic) for a multifaceted view of 13th-century Europe.–Connie C. Rockman, Stratford Library Association, CTCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.