Chapter 1. When animal droppings and garbage and spoiled straw are piled up in a great heat, the rotting and boiling give forth heat.

Usually, no one gets close enough to notice because of the stench. But the girl notice, and on frosty night burrowed deep into the warm rotting muck, heedless of the smell.

In any event, the dung heat probably smelled a little worse than everything else in her life. The food scraps

scavenged from kitchen yards, the stables and sties she slept in when she could,

and her own unwashed, un-nourished, unloved, and unlovely body.

End scene. So begins Karen Cushman's The Midwife's Apprentice, a book that we read of our own free

well. We sure did consciously choose this and you know as I said to you off air

town public libraries copy of this book does in fact smell so it feels in some

ways like the medium is reflecting the message so I'm said literally sitting

with that over here but welcome everyone to American

girls the podcast this is the show we're reliving the American Girl series book by

book but not here on Patreon we're doing pretty much whatever we want that we think is in the world of the show, including suggestions by all of you.

Thank you so much. My name is Mary.

I'm Allison, but I'm called Bertie.

Okay, and I will go by Alice for the remainder of this recording,

or Edward, like whatever feels right in the moment.

Those are the names that have stayed with me from this book.

But wow, what a read this was? I, unlike you, Allison, and I want to hear your childhood thoughts. I know we have your notes from childhood with us today.

I never read this book when I was a child. I thought I had but I think I read her other book. So this was a

fresh read for me, still feeling a lot of feelings about it, but I would love to kind of hear your

thoughts. Like what do you remember about this book

and did it live up to the height?

...