Crispin: At the Edge of the World

2006 has been a good year for Newbery sequels. First Louis Sacher comes out with, "Small Steps", his follow-up to "Holes". Then Avi does the same with the second part of his Crispin series. "Crispin: At the Edge of the World" begins at the precise moment that "Crispin: The Cross of Lead" ended. Like its predecessor, the book is chock full of intelligent contemplations on the nature of "good" and "evil". More importantly, with this book Avi is taking the time to show that a human being is a tricky changeable thing. That said, this is the weaker of the two books and feels very much to be the middle section of a three part series. There's much to admire in Avi's writing here, but I had a hard time getting past some of the story's sadism to truly think it worthy reading.

When last we saw our young hero Crispin and Bear, his stalwart fatherly companion, the two had just left Great Wexly, but not before the elder of the two had suffered some severe torture. Weakened, Bear is further wounded by members of the secretive rebel brotherhood, to whom he belonged. The brotherhood now believes that Bear has betrayed them and they will stop at nothing to seek his death. Soon the two join up with a disfigured girl named Troth who helps to heal them and keep them safe. The three decide the next course of action is to find somewhere safe to live. Unfortunately the brotherhood is not so easily dissuaded and on top of everything else, Bear is increasingly perturbed by the fate of his own soul. Apparently there are things in the man's past that haunt him still. Now Crispin must put away his idealized Bear and exchange him for something far more human. However unpleasant this change may be.

I was a little shocked at the fate of Bear in this book. In "Cross of Lead", he was a bold, brash, bossy, wonderful fellow. He lent the title the joy, humor, and common sense it so sorely needed. Take away a humorous Bear and what you're left with is 14th century muck and misery. I understand that to allow Crispin to grow, he needed to become independent of Bear. Keep Bear an active/interactive character and Crispin will never be able to show that when push comes to shove he's a worthy and remarkable person. I understand this. Still, Avi takes it too far. Bear's misery starts on page 2 and ends on 228 (three pages from the final Author's Note). The suffering he feels at the hands of his own author is almost sadistic. If he hasn't just been weakened by torture or received an arrow through his arm then he's engulfed in fever or dragged by his neck from a horse. Avi leaves Bear with little to no dignity in this book, and I for one resented the fact. Yes, he had to become human in Crispin's eyes and maybe humbled as well. But did you have to drag out his misery in the physical, spiritual, AND emotional sense? Did Avi himself hate this character so much that he couldn't allow him his usual humor, thereby making the story that much more difficult to (pardon the word) bear? And will kids reading this book feel inclined to carry on in the series if a beloved character is destroyed in this manner? Imagine if J.K. Rowling tortured and wreaked Hagrid from the Harry Potter books. Because that is akin what I feel Avi has done to poor Bear here.

The quest Crispin seeks in this book is to find a safe place where he, Bear, and Troth can all live. Yet once the reader reaches the end of the book they find that this quest was basically doomed all along. At least one of the groups of bad guys in this book has inadvertently won and our heroes lose one of their members along the way. Now let's be clear that I think the emotional journey Crispin takes in this book is well worth following. From the moment he mentions that he couldn't think of Bear as anything but "goodness itself", you can understand what the poor kid is going through. Nobody wants to see their hero brought low. And the writing itself often trips into the meaningful. "Lying there in the darkness, I though: is that what it is to be older - to know there are things you are afraid to know?" Or when our three protagonists find themselves on a little boat in the middle of a deadly storm and, "our sail had split into several parts, and was now flapping like so many flags - each one an offer of surrender." THAT makes a book worthy reading, people. That is superb prose. If only the book had cheered up once in a while as well. There are moments, as when the characters settle briefly in a little island village, when you could label such passages as "less dark". They're never light though, and that means that the book itself, for all its beauty, is a depressing piece. This wouldn't be so bad, except that, in an emotional sense, the book fails to deliver the punch a reader would require of it. If you can't laugh with a book then you may have a hard time crying as well.

The title is a touch deceptive. Certainly the ending of the book consists of the story's characters deciding amongst themselves to high-tail it North to the "edge of the world". Still, to my mind that means that the third book in the series should have borne this title. Oh well. That's nitpicking. The Author's Note in the back provides the average reader with further information pertaining to such things as who John Ball was, the fate of Richard II, and a tiny bit of info on the Hundred Years War. Do not expect, however, that kids reading this book will get much more info out of it than that. For further reading Avi just says this: "A good deal of information about the Bremen Cog may be found on the Internet." Uh... duh. Howzabout mentioning where on the Internet to look?

I know I'm being unduly harsh on poor "At the Edge of the World". I guess that "Cross of Lead" just lifted my expectations and I was hoping for something equally entrancing. It seems a bit ridiculous at this point to mention that "At the Edge of the World" is still heads and tails better than much of what is churned out and placed on booksellers' shelves. Still, when you take into consideration the whole of the Avi oeuvre (if I ever have a band I'm naming it The Avi Oeuvre) this book simply does not stand up. It's perfectly nice, but I am looking forward to the third in the series. Let's see if Avi can make us smile again.

"What kind of men -- I wondered -- were these that killed by day, drank by night, but prayed each morning?"

If you have yet to read CRISPIN: THE CROSS OF LEAD, then I urge you to stop reading this review of the second book (in what will hopefully become a CRISPIN trilogy), and immediately buy, borrow, or steal a copy of the first book.

And if you have already read CRISPIN: THE CROSS OF LEAD, you are in for a wonderful surprise: the second CRISPIN book is even more powerful and moving than the first.

In fact, Avi could have chosen to write a safe and forgettable sequel to his 2003 Newbery Medal-winner, CRISPIN: THE CROSS OF LEAD. Regardless of such a sequel's significance, or lack thereof, school and public librarians everywhere would add to their collections an author's follow-up to a Newbery Medal-winning tale.

But rather than taking that path of least resistance, Avi has, instead, crafted a breathtaking and oft-brutal medieval adventure story that is underlain with some subtle-yet-biting satire. The result is a sequel that could well stand on its own as the most exciting and thought-provoking book of Avi's long and celebrated career.

"It was a June morning when Bear and I passed beyond Great Wexly's walls and left the crowded and treacherous city behind. The June sun was warm, the sky above as blue as my Blessed Lady's spotless robe; our triumphant sense of liberty kept me giddy with joy. Hardly able to contain myself, I more than once cried out, 'My name is Crispin!' for all the world to hear."

With a seamless transition from the first book, CRISPIN: AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD picks up the harrowing adventures of Crispin and Bear exactly where and when the first book left off. It is still 1377, amidst the era of the Hundred Years War, and the pair are trying to leave Great Wexly behind. At the conclusion of the first book, Crispin has completed the deal with the evil John Aycliffe in which Crispin agrees to leave town and forgo any claim to his newly-found heritage as Lord Furnival's son in exchange for Aycliffe's ordering Bear released from prison. Bear, who had been incarcerated as a suspected member of John Ball's secret brotherhood (a group which seeks to win personal liberties for the people), is finally free but greatly weakened from his time in prison followed by the violent finale with the double-crossing Aycliffe.

Further ill-fortune awaits the pair at the onset of the second book. A number of other brotherhood members have just been inexplicably arrested and, so, when a brotherhood member recognizes Bear, realizes he is no longer in prison, and wrongly concludes that the bearded giant of a man has provided the authorities with names in exchange for saving his own skin, he seriously wounds the fleeing Bear and causes initiation of the manhunt (Bearhunt?) that will cast a long shadow over the duo throughout the second book.

And then there were three:

It is as a result of the pair's crossing paths in the middle of the forest with the wise woman, herbalist, and midwife, Aude, a woman who is severely persecuted for her pagan beliefs, that Crispin and Bear are eventually joined in their flight to evade the brotherhood by Aude's young apprentice, a girl with a cleft palate called Toth. It is this trio who evolve into a family and who then proceed to face the terror and insanity, provided in turn by both nature and by man, that sends the story spinning across Britain and out into stormy seas.

" 'Tell us of the attack,' Bear said to this man as he poled us across.

" 'It was a sweet, cloudless day when they came,' was the reply. 'They came by sea, at dawn, swooping in, killing almost seventy. Four men were taken away for ransom. Looting was rampant. Many houses were burned. They burnt our church, stealing everything they could, even taking the bells.' He paused in his poling to lift a fist in anger. 'May God strike them down, hard!' He marked his words with a shove upon his pole, punctuating them by spitting into the water.

" 'And they claim Saint Dennis as their protector, he who is a defense against strife. May Jesus blast them all.'

" 'Was there no resistance?' asked Bear.

" 'We did resist. Fiercely. But were ill-prepared. Those who failed in their responsibility have paid the penalty.'

" 'How so?' asked Bear.

" 'Execution,' said the man. 'God rot them.' He spat into the water.

" 'That,' suggested Bear, 'will surely make them better prepared next time.' "

Once again, as with the first book, I am totally entangled in Avi's medieval world and cannot wait for another installment to be written and published.

Noted children's author Avi spins a fine yarn in this captivating sequel to his Newbery Medal-winning "Crispin: The Cross of Lead." From a nameless youth who had never left the boundaries of his tiny village, Crispin is forced to grow up fast when his mother dies and he is falsely accused of crimes. On the run and desperate, he links up with a kindly, rough-hewn juggler named Bear who becomes the father he never knew. As Hagrid is to Harry Potter, so Bear is to Crispin as he takes him under his wing. Bear rescues Crispin from many harrowing scrapes until Bear's critical wounding necessitates a role-reversal by his young charge.

Avi's sequel has Crispin and Bear departing the intrigue and treachery of Great Wexly and heading north on rough paths to escape further trouble. Their respite is short-lived. After they rest a while with a midwife and her young apprentice, they flee once again when the midwife is murdered. Enter Troth, the young apprentice, whom they take with them. This marks the beginning of a transition, from Bear to Troth, as well as a rite of passage, from Crispin the dependent to Crispin the man. Bear continues with them, but his strength is waning and his days are numbered.

They reach the coastal town of Rye for another breather, but are forced to escape by boat when Bear's pursuers catch up with them. For both Crispin and Troth, this marks their first time on the ocean and their first time away from England. They wind up in Brittany, France, where their unguided boat runs aground after a fierce storm claims the crew. For Crispin and Troth, this is like going to the edge of the world. The three continue their trek, but they are quickly taken prisoner by marauding soldiers.

"Crispin: At the Edge of the World" is an excellent book that leaves the reader hungry for what is to be the third installment of a trilogy. It is best to read the two "Crispin" books in order, but one can manage by starting with the sequel. The only criticism I have is very minor. At times Avi includes longer words (e.g., "emblazoned with embellishments" in the first book, "exuberance" and "incomprehensibly" in the second) that seem a little out of place for an illiterate peasant boy narrator and a youthful audience. Otherwise, both "Crispin" books are easy to digest, leaving one with a good aftertaste and an appetite for more. Fr. Dennis Mercieri

This is a sequel to Avi's Crispin: The Cross of Lead. This series is set in the year 1377, during a period of political and social crisis in England. The protagonist is Crispin, a poor orphan. Crispin grew up in a small village, but had to flee due to persecution from the local steward. In the first book he threw in his lot with Bear, a traveling entertainer and father figure.

The second book, Crispin: At the Edge of the World, begins where the first book left off, with Crispin and Bear jubilantly making their way out of the city of Great Wexly, and into the world. Their happiness is short-lived, however, as they are soon attacked by a man who believes that Bear has betrayed a secret brotherhood. Bear is gravely injured.

With Bear wounded and unable to take his customary charge of the situation, Crispin has to grow up quickly. The two are taken in by a elderly healer woman named Aude and her adopted daughter, Troth. Aude and Troth are not Christian, which is very difficult for Crispin to understand and accept at first. He also has trouble adjusting to Troth's cleft palate (which caused her birth parents to abandon her, and which was generally considered to be a mark of the Devil at the time). Eventually, however, Aude and Troth's kindness breaks through his barriers, and Crispin's worldview expands to accept them.

Through continuing bad luck, Troth, Crispin, and Bear end up back on the road together, an unconventional but loyal family. They remain on the run from the angry brotherhood that attacked Bear, and from Crispin's enemies, and they seek refuge by the sea. The mere existence of the sea is remarkable to Crispin and Troth, who had both previously led very sheltered lives. Here's the conversation in which Crispin first learns about the sea:

"The sea, Crispin, is water--also called ocean--which covers the world in greater magnitude than land."

"You mock me," I said, scoffing at such an absurdity.

This book struck me as more poetic in its writing than the first in the series, perhaps reflecting the increasing sophistication of the narrator, Crispin. Here are a couple of examples:

"Shards of colored glass lay about on the ground--as if a rainbow had fallen from the sky and shattered"; and

"Oh, dear, great Bear in ragged tunic, whose soul fairly burst with the sheer joy of living, a breathing blessing to all who saw him ..."

Overall, I think that this book is that rare second book of a trilogy that is better than its predecessor. Crispin's character continues to mature and evolve, and his friendship with Troth is engaging and realistic. The adventures that befall the small family contain a nice balance of exciting action and realistic historical detail. We learn more about Bear's past, and the experiences that have made him the way that he is. Avi's writing is spare and concise, yet also lyrical. This is the kind of book that I'll think about long after I've finished reading it. I look forward to the concluding book in the series.

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on September 5, 2006.

This was an excellent sequel to the book "Crispin: the Cross of Lead". It kept my interest and moved along from event to event so that I could not put it down. It left me wanting to read the third book in the trilogy.

What I liked most about this book was the characters Avi created: Crispin, Bear, and Toth. And the setting: I love the way Avi brought the 14th century to life, with customs, speech, clothing, food. In many ways reading this book was like living in that time period. Also, I liked the serious subjects (war, religion, community, justice) that Avi wove through the book.

But I did feel that there was something manipulative about the plot: the brotherhood seemed so modern that I was jarred into the present world each time I read about it. This part of the book just seemed sensationalized to me. I do recommend this book, though: definitely worth reading.

I read this after my son read it. We both really engoyed it. We also read The Cross of Lead before this and enjoyed that as well. They are both books that will stick with us. We are anxious for the third book to come out.

First off let me say that I really enjoyed Crispin, The Cross of Lead. I liked the action paced pursuit and Bear's strength. Obviously Crispin sees a father in Bear and even I started to look up at him as one of my favorite characters from children's books.
Unluckily in The Edge of the World, Bear is not the type of character I admired. He is weak and wounded and doesn't really want to take risks anymore. The characters are pursuited throughout the story. Bear is always in pain and he really never recovers. For me good writing involves character's failures and pains throughout the story but as a reader I feel I want to be rewarded with a triumph at the end, with a bit of happiness for the characters. In the end everyone fails and griefs over everything that has happened. Bear, my favorite character dies probably of small wounds and exhaustion. Nobody helps him, not even Crispin. He just let's him sleep and die. I wanted to go and help him and show Bear that there are people in 14th century Europe that are kind and helpful to one another.
Crispin is a good kid that learns several lessons from Bear and the world around him. At the end Crispin has to make a few tough decision and he succeeds but I don't see him as a passionate character. He feels the need to break away from Bear's negativity but as a good son he stays with him all the time, until the end. I wish Crispin was more of a hero, not a soldier but a kid who learned a lot from Bear's wits and wisdom.

AVI is a great storyteller, one of the best I have ever read and he really has a talent for writing but this last novel feels like it was an assignment instead of an inspiration.

If you really liked the Cross of Lead then you might read this, but don't buy it, get it from the library as I did.

A great children's book in keeping with the first book. I like the newest added character. Worth the read.