Kate DiCamillo is a wildly successful author of children’s novels probably most famous and familiar to readers as the author of Because of Winn Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux. In addition to penning the popular Mercy Watson series for younger children, DiCamillo has twice won the highest honor given writers of children’s literature in America, the Newbery Medal. (In addition to being a finalist for Because of Winn Dixie.)
Published in 2021, The Beatryce Prophecy marks a return by the author to the fairy tale milieu explored in such earlier efforts as The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. The book did not necessarily begin as an attempt to revisit fairy tale geography, however. DiCamillo has asserted that the book originated on the basis of just three words: monk, moon, and goat. Aside from that imagery, she was not really clear where the story was going to take her. That destination would turn out to be the tale of a girl named, obviously, Beatryce, an angry monk-hating goat named Answelica and, naturally, a prophecy about one especially unique and magical little girl who just might possibly turn out to be none other than the child whom the goat takes an unexpectedly tender liking to.
The magical tale that involves a monastery, an orphan named Jack and an embittered older man who wants nothing form the world anymore except for more laughter is not only written in the form of a fairy tale, but also gloriously illustrated in the style of traditional folk tales by Sophie Blackall that gains strength from its abbreviated utilization. The book does not feature a great deal of illustrations which lend those that do pop up all the greater strength.
The targeted demographic for The Beatryce Prophecy are those readers between the ages of 8 and 12 and parents should be aware that Jack’s orphan status is related in part by Jack himself as a witness to a man holding a knife in his mouth while threatening his parents. As he runs for help, the sound of her cries of terror ring in his ears. Otherwise, the content should be fairly inoffensive and non-controversial enough to suit all but perhaps a few parents living in especially Bradburyian regions.
