Peregrine

=Peregrine by Joan Elizabeth Goodman=

Book review by Isabel Boutiette
In __Peregrine__, Lady Edith goes on a holy pilgramige from Cheswick Manor to Jerusalem to run away from her sad and lonely life in England. She is in deep sorrow in England because her baby and husband had died, and to top that off Sir Runcival, a man whom she despises, is looking for her hand in marriage. So she goes with her nurse, Dame Joan, her brother, Simon, Monks that work with Simon, and a body guard to Jerusalem. On the way she meets many people of extreme high class such as the Pope who is very interested in her brothers artwork, the three Tibors who teach her how to write songs and poems, and the queen Eleanor of Aquitaine who makes Edith feel grateful that she can go on a pilgrimage. But the most significant person she meets is a girl by the name of Rhiannon who asks for help as Edith is passing through the woods. Thinking Rhiannon is the solution to her misery she takes her with the group on the pilgrimage. Rhiannon later becomes a major part in the life of Lady Edith because she can read minds and gives Lady Edith excellent advice. Later on in the book, we find out that Lady Edith had been in love before she was matched with her dearly departed husband with a man named Will Belet. A big theame in __Peregrine__ is the actual word, peregrine because of its two meanings; it is a type of bird and also a pilgrim. This word really describes Lady Edith's story because she is flying away from her problems on a pilgrimage.

This book was very interesting because of the place religion took in their everyday life. Jews and Moslems were look down upon, and only at the end does Lady Edith realize from her tour guide in Jerusalem that that Jews, Moslems, and Christians all come from the same "family". A lot of what they did or believed was due to their religion. I never knew religion was that big of an aspect in the every day lives of people in the middle ages because in modern day, it only is if you are religious which most people aren't. My favorite people that Lady Edith met were the three Tibors whom all had "Tibor" in their name. They were really inspiring because they were the most different of all the other people that she met because they were really into song and dancing. Although I thought this was a pretty good book I would not recommend it to one of my classmates because its a very boring start and only in the second half of the book does it get interesting. It also was not very consistent because some parts would be amazing and some parts I would find myself spacing off during. Overall it was a good read.