Avi’s Crispin: The Cross of Lead Essay

The story basically takes place in the era of the fourteenth century wherein half the world has prudently changed it such delight as movements have started to unfold the belligerent realm of the country. â€Å"Crispin is somebody who thinks of himself as nothing, and in the course of the book, comes to think of himself as something. † This is what Avi says of his latest fictional hero, Crispin, a 13-year-old in 14th-century England who’s running for his life. Here’s a quick glimpse at this exciting adventure story. Once master and apprentice arrive in Great Wexly for the Midsummer’s Day festivities and some seditious intrigue on Bear’s part, Avi slows down and offers both the reader and Crispin a chance to look around, but things speed up again with the reappearance of the steward and pursuit through the streets of the medieval city. The story commences with a funeral, that of a community recluse whose precedent is wearing a veil in vagueness and whose minor lad is recognized merely as â€Å"Asta’s son. † Stuck in sorrow for his protector, the boy discovers his moniker, Crispin, commencing from the rural community cleric, even though his apparently dead father’s personality and identification for that matter remains unclear. The words imprinted on his mother’s precious ‘lead cross’ may endow with some sign, but the priest is murdered before he can enlighten him with the illiterate lead. Worse, Crispin is alleged over the murder by the manor warden, hence naming him as a â€Å"wolf’s head† (wanted dead or alive), but then again, it is subliminally preferably dead. Crispin leaves the twon who hated him for no valid reason, and became a traveling performer. The cause for the steward’s enmity is finally revealed–Crispin is the illegitimate son of the local lord, who recently died without an heir–but the expected ending gets a surprise twist when Crispin trades this birthright for Bear’s safety. From Crispin’s initial religious dependence and inability to meet others’ eyes to his eventual choice of his own path and freedom, the theme of self-determination is carried lightly, giving this quick, easily digested thriller just the right amount of heft. Indeed, it offers a whole new dimension of prose in the modern day readers. Reference: Avi. (2004). Crispin: The Cross of Lead. New York: Hyperion.