It’s not surprising that the same monks who later deliberately wash their hands of the troublesome problem of Beatryce have failed that test, and fear her as a thing possessed by demons. Answelica, the savage goat of “The Beatryce Prophecy,” is far less good-humored than Mercy, the beaming pig, but then she lives in the harder (and in this case medieval) world of middle grade fiction, where a goat has to look out for herself and the wounded child in her care, and her best tool for judging the character of those around her is to test their reaction to being violently butted. I first met Kate DiCamillo in the pages of one of the Mercy Watson chapter books when it came home from the school library with my daughter many years ago. THE BEATRYCE PROPHECY By Kate DiCamillo Illustrated by Sophie Blackall
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