Julietta by Myra Saturen

Troyes, France, 1283. Among Medieval physicians, a courageous few were women. They faced popular prejudice and furious opposition to their participation in the medical field. Yet, fourteen-year-old Julietta’s dream had always been to dare to follow in the footsteps of her Herbalist mother and the tradition of healing.

Homeless after the expulsion of Jews from her village, and removed to the city of Troyes for safety, she is separated from her mother to become a ward of master physician Brion. In this household, female and therefore banned from seeking knowledge and being intellectually curious, Julietta seeks solace in restoring the Brion’s tangled, weed-filled garden. How unlike her mother’s, it is. Mother’s was filled with healing herbs and color. With each herb Julietta plants, she consults her mother’s herbal notebook, and discovers the herbs ability to heal. Filled with compassion for the sick and suffering, naturally intelligent Julietta learns by patience and discovery. She works with stems, leaves, berries and flowers. She begins to create remedies. She yearns to be allowed into Master Brion’s blue-tiled special study room. She yearns to learn, to apprentice.

Spirited, compassionate and inquisitive, soon Julietta must confront the usual anti-feminist obstacles and more, a skeptical mentor, a jealous rival and her own self-doubt, to achieve her dream of becoming a doctor.

The novel offers young readers a glimpse of a fascinating but obscure era in Jewish history, the Middle Ages, with its customs, ethos and folk beliefs. It also explores a little known facet of medieval life—the daring participation of women in the field of medicine. In so doing, the story highlights women’s historical journey, from herbalists to doctors’ assistants to physicians in their own right.

Myra Saturen is a resident of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

 From a homeschooler, Mariann A., Oakton, VA:  JULIETTA, a novel about a young Jewish girl in the 1200's, is our current read aloud for the evenings. It is providing our fifth grader (and our third graders) with an excellent grasp of concepts she is reading about in the Kingfisher Illustrated Encyclopedia used in History Odyssey Level Two - Middle Ages. It is giving faces, names, characterization, personalization and heart to a time in history where there is little supplemental fictional material to be found - the persecution of Jews in the Middle Ages.