Life in a Medieval Monastery

The Way People Live

by Victoria Sherrow

Medieval monasteries served both spiritual and practical functions and played an important role in social development and progress during the Middle Ages. The various monastic orders shared certain ideals, such as poverty, chastity, and obedience, but also developed individual characteristics and ways of life.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

96 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2000

About the author

Victoria discovered her interest in reading and writing both in early adolescence. In 1978 she moved to Los Angeles and worked two jobs. It was at that time she read Writing for Children and Teenagers by Lee Wyndham , and that is when her fate as a writer was sealed. Victoria had decided to write a children's novel. She went to an annual L.A. conference on writing for children where she learned the basics of marketing and submitting work for writers. Then she started writing.

Her first stories were rejected but she kept strong at it. The year after(1979), she managed to sell a story. Then she sold more. And since she has become a multiple award winning author with over 100 published titles to her name. Sherrow has written poetry, short stories, picture books, and articles.

Victoria has taught writing for over twenty years, reviewed children’s books for newspapers, judged writing contests, and done numerous presentations at schools, libraries, and bookstores. She is a long-time member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and served as a judge for the SCBWI’s Golden Kite Award.

Reviews

[Jenalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A concise, informative, well-written account of monasteries. They served a positive role and were very influential in so many different facets of life: farming techniques, medicine, infirmaries, literacy, caring for the poor, keeping records, artistic endeavors, and creating a more stable town-centered life.

[Ami · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only skimmed this; I was mainly interested in what their day-to-day schedule looked like. The answer: a daunting number of services. However, compared to most peasants' lives in the middle ages, it was probably a more comfortable life. The artwork was my favorite part.