Product Description

A vivid retelling of the Robin Hood legend from Maid Marian's point of view follows the fifteen-year-old orphan's flight into Sherwood Forest and her encounter with an idealistic fighter against injustice. Reprint. AB. H. SLJ.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #292802 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-07
• Released on: 1997-04-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-Mary de Holt, 15, runs away from her uncle's manor to avoid marrying the elderly widower he has chosen for her, and her nurse, Agnes, follows. They take refuge in the endless, forbidding forest, and Mary finds it teeming with life-wretched folk on the run, defrocked nuns, and a mysterious prophetess, among others. Local lore tells of a fearsome witch, the Forestwife, who in truth is a woman skilled in herbs and potions who provides assistance to all those desperate enough to seek it. Agnes and Mary find her, but too late; she has died, and they soon take over her role. As Mary becomes more self-sufficient and assimilated into the forest, Agnes renames her Marian. Agnes's son, an outlaw who comes to them for healing and returns their kindness with poached game and stolen goods, becomes Robin Hood. In the same way that Robin McKinley created real lives for Marian and Robin in The Outlaws of Sherwood (Greenwillow, 1988), Tomlinson uses imagined details and historical facts and settings to create a briefer, very different, but equally moving and believable story with a strong, competent heroine. In her afterword, she describes her research, the places and events linked to the legends, and the records concerning women's lives in medieval England. Plot elements involving the activities of King Richard the Lionhearted and his quarrelsome brother John give the story a place in time, while the occasional use of middle English words add to the ambiance.
Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, PA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 8-12. Using the Robin Hood legends as a springboard, Tomlinson heads deep into the heart of the forest; however, the hero of this story is not the prince of thieves, but Marian, who becomes the benevolent Green Lady of the forest. Rather than marry an elderly widower who stinks of ale, 15-year-old Marian runs away to join the forest folk, who live by their own rules. Among them is her former nurse, Agnes, whose common sense and prowess at healing have earned her the mantle of Forestwife--the wise woman people come to when they are in dire need. Agnes is also the mother of a young outlaw named Robert, whom Marian dislikes at first sight. Several recent novels, Frances Temple's The Ramsay Scallop (Booklist Books for Youth Top of the List 1994) and Karen Cushman's Catherine, Called Birdie (Books for Youth Editors' Choice 1994), offer a view of the Middle Ages from the female perspective, but Tomlinson adds a dimension by primarily populating her world with women characters, including a band of renegade nuns. Cleverly, yet subtly, the author marks the extra burdens that women had to bear in a society that was fair to few of its subjects. But this is a very personal story as well, and a voyage of discovery for Marian, who finds the mother she thought was dead and a true love in Robert. In an ending that's underplayed, Marian must forfeit her wished-for role of wife to Robert for the role of Forestwife when Agnes dies. A rich, vibrant tale with an afterword that describes how various legends were braided into the story. Ilene Cooper

Review
Mary has no choice other than a sour marriage, so she and an aged guardian flee their home and form their own community deep in the forest in this story of medieval English life. This creates an alternative view of the life and times of Robin Hood, presenting a woman’s strong perspective. -- Midwest Book Review

Customer Reviews

Unexpected
Unlike what I had expected, The Forestwife is not a retelling of Robin Hood story told from Maid Marian's perspective. It does not showcase the heroic acts of Robin and his merry band, or even focus primarily on his romance with Maid Marian. Instead, Tomlinson chose to develop a thoughtful, imaginative, and carefully researched branch off from the original legend (thought to have taken place near her actual English home), in which a cast of capable females, who have traditionally filled supporting roles, set off on a progression of adventures of their own.

Embodying a balance of compassion, courage, grace and true grit, these women work together, sharing their wisdom and strength, to win victories over oppression, illness, starvation, and the elements themselves, to heal others, and to heal themselves. Robin Hood and his Merry Men play a part in the plot, but generally in a more contributing fashion, working alongside or in cooperation with the able heroines, sharing equal opportunities with the women to swoop in and save the day.

In the tradition of Robin Hood, battle action and budding romances appear throughout its pages, but The Forestwife takes things one step further. If you are looking for a book with strong, capable, problem-solving female leads, or a window of insight into the realities of day-to-day medieval life (as in The Moorchild, A Door in the Wall, or The Midwife's Apprentice), this book would be well worth a try.

It's Enchanting, But Realistic!
I really loved this book. I just finished it. It's about the 15 year old Mary de Holt. She's sentenced to a married life to an old, ugly, man, whom she knows she could never be happy with. When she runs away, she runs into her nurse from birth, Agnes. They set of for the house of the Forestwife, but finde her to be lying dead. So Agnes becomes the new Forestwife, and Mary her helper, Marian or the Green Lady. There are many suprises in store and a few parts that you wish-why, why, this, this isn't what I wanted to happen. But it's also an enchanting, yet realistic book, not all that "and they lived happily ever after" stuff. Although a few of those parts I wish would have been more the "happily ever after" stuff, I'm that sorta person, who kinda wants everything to come out the way I want it. But is still was a wonderful book. I really liked the legend twist, concentrating on the enchanting Maid Marian. I love fairytale twist books, I read ones in the similar twist form on Cinderella and Beauty, from Beauty and the Beast. I also saw there is a sequel to this. Although I'm sure to read it eventually, I rather hesitate, knowing it won't include much of Maid Marian and Robert's(Robin Hood) romance and friendship, or the fact that they wouldn't be the main characters. I guess I sorta wish it'd stay just where it has ended now, leaving you to your imagination. You can give it any sort of end, even change the turn out of Marian and Robert's romance and a few other suprises you might want to change to your way. But all in all I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Robin Hood tales, medevil times, or twisted legend/fairytales. Enjoy!

A good book, with well developed characters
I just finished this book and it was an excellent depiction of srong women who live wild in the forest and help sick people. The characterizations were awesome, most especially Marian, who was an incredibly cool character in this book, unlike most other Robin Hood stories, so characters get five stars. The plot was good also, though I wish more of the action had actually taken place in the story. Instead, all the outlaws would go out and fight a battle "offscreen", and then come back and tell the other characters about it, so plot gets three and 1/2 stars. Writing style and dialogue were possitively breathtaking, with true old style flair, so it also gets five stars. So, altogether this book wins a unanimous four stars, which is excellent. This book would be best for kids ten to fifteen, as younger kids probably wouldn't get most of it.