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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Common Sense Media calls it minimal but constant in the background: threats of burning, beating and shunning are routine, a girl puts a knife to Boy's throat, and Boy spends days trapped in a tomb
Language
Barely any
Very little
Sexual Content
None
Common Sense Media records no sexual content
Substance Use
Barely any
Very little — Common Sense Media notes adults drinking wine and ale, appropriate to the period setting
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Boy is bullied and discriminated against for a visible disability throughout, and carries a secret about his own nature that the plot slowly opens
What this book is about
In 1350, a boy called Boy — mocked for the hump on his back — is pressed into service by a pilgrim named Secundus, who is collecting the seven relics of Saint Peter for reasons of his own. Common Sense Media rates the 288-page Newbery Honor book 10+ with minimal violence: 'threats of violence such as being burned, beaten, and shunned are everyday occurrences,' a girl holds a knife to Boy's throat, and Boy is trapped in a tomb for days. Language is very little — 'hell' used in context, 'piss,' and archaic constructions like ''twould.' Adults drink wine and ale. There is no sexual content. The medieval religious material — relics, saints, damnation — is dense and central.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Persistent disability-based cruelty and shunning
Heavy medieval Catholic religious content: relics, saints, damnation
Plague-era setting with routine threats of violence
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