Meredith Sutphin

INLS 532: Children’s Literature

10/9/07

The Forestwife: A Critical Review

Tomlinson, Theresa. The Forestwife. New York: Orchard Books, 1995. 170 pages. ISBN
0531094502

Selection Sources:
Best Books for Middle School and Junior High Readers, 2004. p. 138.
Best Books for Young Teen Readers, 2000. p. 110.
Children’s Fiction Sourcebook, 2nd Edition, 1995. p. 202.

Reading Level: Grades 4 - 6

Plot Synopsis:
Mary de Holt, about to be forced into a marriage she does not want, decides to run away to the
dangerous woods to escape her fate. Her old nursemaid, Agnes, follows her and becomes her
companion, and she leads the girl to a place of refuge known to the local common folk: the house
of the Forestwife, the witch in the woods who heals the sick and protects the people who suffer
under the harsh rule of the gentry. However, they find the Forestwife dead in her cottage, and
Agnes takes up the role, with Mary, now renamed “Marian” to hide her identity, as her helper.
The Forestwife’s cottage gains many new inhabitants as Agnes and Marian help a young mother
who gives birth to a stillborn baby, a woman who is being tortured in a metal yoke in the village,
and a group of nuns imprisoned in their own cloisters for being too outspoken and eccentric.
Marian discovers Agnes’s wounded outlaw son, Robert, and though the two do not get along at
first, Robert and his gang of other outlaws help the women by bringing them food and helping
them escape capture when they hunt deer illegally during a brutally harsh winter. Marian and
Robert begin to fall in love, and Marian saves Robert’s life by making a dangerous journey to the
coast to heal him when he is wounded while fighting for King Richard. But when Marian
returns, she finds that Agnes has died, and Marian sadly assumes the role of Forestwife, knowing
that she has a duty to the people, even though it means that she cannot marry Robert.

Review:
This book would be especially engaging for girls, for Tomlinson’s forest is filled with female
characters young and old, and each of them shows a different face of women’s experiences in the
Middle Ages. Here, “the hero of the story is not the prince of thieves, but Marian, who becomes
the benevolent Green Lady of the forest;” The Forestwife tells the familiar Robin Hood legend
from what has traditionally been a secondary female perspective (Booklist). However, it is
Tomlinson’s portrayal of Marian’s inner reflections that makes the experiences of women
accessible for young girls to identify with; though Marian herself is not a young mother or a
cloistered nun, she feels empathy towards these women and explores their situations in her
thoughts. Tomlinson’s skill at weaving the story through Marian’s thoughts makes the story
shine as a personal tale about growing up as well as a Medieval adventure, and this depth makes
it an engaging book. However, Tomlinson often seems to be pushing an awareness of differences
between now and then on her readers; her use of Middle English words make the story feel
stilted and awkward at times. Also, the pre-Christian elements she uses are inserted into the
story in ways that sometimes seem artificial and draw one’s attention away from the actual tale to
author’s structuring of the tale, which disrupts the reading experience and detracts from the book.
Even though some of its elements of historical fiction are not done as well as they might be, this
book is such an interesting and entertaining example of a Medieval story from a female
perspective that it would be a valuable addition to a collection. Particularly, it has value as a
story that deals with the sometimes harsh realities of Medieval life rather than being a fanciful
tale with a Medieval veneer: “Tomlinson focuses on the afflicted common folk, ground down by
misfortune and injustice,” and the situation of the common people could serve as a springboard
for discussion in a history class (Kirkus). It could be accompanied by Robin McKinley’s
Outlaws of Sherwood for higher reading levels, paired with Cushman’s Catherine Called Birdy
and The Midwife’s Apprentice for a “Women in the Middle Ages” unit, or be used in creative
writing classes as inspiration for writing from the perspective of a secondary character in a
familiar folktale.

Reviews:
Booklist. March 1, 1995. p. 1241
Kirkus Reviews. March 15, 1995. p. 397.
School Library Journal. March 1995. p. 225-226.