Alchemy and Megg Swann seemed as though it would be a good match for our 8th grade social studies curriculm which does cover the end of the Medieval period and the Renaissance. I was initially unable to get involved with the story. This made me wonder whether students would also find getting into this title was going to be difficult for them.
Meggie suffers from bilateral (both sides) hip dysplasia, an abnormal formation of both hip joints at birth in which the ball at the top of each thighbone is not stable in the socket. Although she lived with her mother who ran a tavern, Meggy's gran really raised her and provided her with "sticks" (a handmade type of crutch) so she could move around. When her beloved gran dies, Meggy's mother sends her to live with a father whom she has never met.
Initially her father turns her away as he thinks she is a beggar at his door. With no friends, a father who doesn't even want to know her name, Meggy must find how to survive in Elizabethan England in London.
The vivid descriptions of the smells, the filth, and the poverty are worth the read.
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