A Season Most Unfair

Coats, J. Anderson. A Season Most Unfair
June 20, 2023 by Atheneum

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Living near Cambridge, England in Medieval times, Tick has a decent life. Although her mother died when she was young, her father remarried a woman named Elly who is quite kind to her, and Tick has been able to help her father, a chandler, with his candle making operation. One big down side of this is that rendering tallow (beef fat) to make the candles is quite odiferous, and some of her contemporaries give her a hard time. Her two best friends from earlier days are busy taking care of brothers and sisters, and aren't as keen to hang out with her since she smells bad. There are some advantages to being older, and she hopes to be able to finally be able to make the beeswax Agnes Dei charms that she and her father, whose eyesight is failing, sell at the Stourbridge Fair, and to be considered a full apprentice. Of course, this is not something that girls at this time did, but Tick is surprised when her father takes on the son of a family friend, Henry, as his apprentice and doesn't allow Tick to do work any more. Elly tries to explain that it looks bad to the community if Tick does the candle making, because it means her father can't afford an apprentice, but this is little consolation. Tick knows that Henry isn't particularly happy to leave his family, and tries to be supportive, but she is so mad that she isn't allowed to do work she does well that it's hard. Instead, she's expected to help Elly take care of the house. It doesn't make her feel any better that Henry isn't as good at the job as she is, especially when it comes to the painstaking work on painting the charms. When Tick finds out that her father isn't even going to let her go to the fair this year to help sell their wares, she comes up with a plan. She's made many of the charms on her own with the help of her friends (including some of her own design, honoring her namesake Scholastica on them), and tells Elly that her father forgot them. Knowing this is a big source of income, Elly lets her walk to Cambridge, and once there, she tries to stay with Henry's family, since the mother runs a guest house. She manages to obtain a permit to sell, and to elude her father, but eventually there are complications. Rival candle maker's son Simon hatches a plot to buy Tick's father's candles and resell them, which is illegal, but Tick is the one who almost gets her father in trouble. People are paying more for her charms, and her father is accused of trying to game the system. Once her presence is found out, she does get in trouble, but also gets an opportunity to learn how to run a boarding house from Henry's mother, which is one of the few ways women are allowed to participate in business. 

Strengths: There are very few books set in the Medieval period, and since it is covered in our 7th grade social studies classes, I often have students looking for these stories. Tick's emotions are realistic, and I was glad that she had enough empathy to be fairly kind to Henry even though she saw him as a usurper. Elly was also a well drawn character; it would make sense for a woman who was lame to be willing to marry a man with a very small child, and it was good to see that she thought of Tick as her own, having raised her from infanthood. She also moderated Tick's tantrums well, and explained society's views of women to her while also finding her an opportunity. The information about making candles was interesting; there were so many kinds of trades, and I'd love to learn more about different ones. 
Weaknesses: I could have used more details about food, clothing, and daily living, as well as a firm date when this took place. Also, I now really want to go to Cambridge!
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like historical fiction that involves girls who think outside of the prevalining social climate, like Cushman's Matilda Bone, Bunce's Myrtle Hardcastle series (Victorian era) or Lowry's The Windeby Puzzle.