The Midwife's Apprentice

The Midwife's Apprentice is a book about a girl who only knows herself as brat, dung beetle, or beetle and tries to find a place in the world. She travels to different villages trading work for food and a place to sleep for the night. One day she uses a dung pile in one village to sleep in. When the village's midwife finds her, "dung beetle" asks if she can work in return for little food and a modest place to sleep. The midwife realizes that she can have this girl do most of her errands for barely any cost, so she accepts. When the midwife injures herself, Beetle is sent to go to a fair and buy certain items for canning and medicinal purposes. On the way home from the fair, beetle decides she needs a real name. Deeming herself Alyce, she travels home to the midwife. One day when the midwife goes to birth a child, she was asked to birth another child at the manor. Being her greedy self, Jane takes the job with more money involved and leaves Alyce to watch over the mother, but says not to do anything. Seeing the mother in such pain, Alyce births the baby, only to the anger of the midwife. When Alyce is asked to birth another baby and she fails, she runs away to an inn where she works in return for food and a bed. One day when Jane, the midwife, goes to the inn, she talks to a man there and implies that she doesn't want an apprentice that fails and runs away. She wants one that isn't afraid to fail and try and fail and try again. When Alyce hears this she goes back to Jane, but is not accepted. After thought she returns a second time saying, "Here I am, ready to try and fail and try again." Alyce is accepted and finally has a place and purpose in the world. I think this is a good book that includes a good moral. I hope you will read and enjoy it.