40 Fun Facts About Crispin: the Cross of Lead

What does John Aycliffe declare Crispin to be when he offers a reward for the boy's death?

A wolf's head was a real label in medieval English law for an outlaw, who could be killed by anyone without penalty, like the hated animal itself.

Which top American children's book award did Avi win in 2003 for Crispin: The Cross of Lead?

The Newbery Medal came for Avi's fiftieth book, after two of his earlier novels had finished as runners-up for the same prize in 1991 and 1992.

Before he learns the name Crispin, what do villagers call the young hero of Avi's novel?

Asta's son is all anyone has ever called him, because he and his mother live as outcasts and he has no father to take a name from.

Which disaster had emptied the deserted village where Crispin first meets the juggler Bear?

The Black Death reached England in 1348, about three decades before the story, though that name for the plague was not used until centuries later.

What does the juggler Bear force Crispin to become when they first meet in a deserted village?

His servant is what Bear makes the runaway swear to be, relying on a law that let a free man claim anyone who had fled a master.

Which family member gave the author of Crispin: The Cross of Lead his nickname, Avi, as a baby?

His twin sister came up with Avi when both were about a year old, and it stuck so well that he publishes under it instead of his birth name, Edward Irving Wortis.

John Ball, a rebel priest in Avi's Crispin novel, helped lead which real English uprising of 1381?

The Peasants' Revolt broke out four years after the novel's events, and John Ball is the one character Avi took straight from history.

In which small English village does Crispin live with his mother at the start of Avi's novel?

Stromford is part of Lord Furnival's lands, and Crispin has never once left it until John Aycliffe's hunt drives him onto the road.

Which village priest tells the boy that he was baptized Crispin, only to be murdered soon afterward?

Father Quinel also hands over the lead cross and promises to explain the boy's parentage the next night, but John Aycliffe's men kill him first.

Which instrument does Bear teach Crispin to play so the two can earn money performing in villages?

A recorder gives Crispin a part in the act: he pipes a simple tune while Bear juggles, drums and sings for the village crowds.

At which Great Wexly tavern, run by an old friend of Bear, do Crispin and Bear take a room?

The Green Man is the tavern where the pair hear that Lord Furnival has died, leaving Lady Furnival in charge of his lands.

Which friend of Bear in Great Wexly finally tells Crispin the truth about his own birth?

Widow Daventry keeps the tavern where the pair are lodging, and she tells him only after soldiers have seized Bear and searched the house for the boy.

Where in the tavern room in Great Wexly does Bear tell Crispin to hide if things go badly?

Behind a false wall is where Crispin crouches when John Aycliffe's soldiers do come searching for him, after they have already seized Bear.

How do Crispin and Bear get past the extra guards posted at the gates of Great Wexly?

Dancing and playing music as a father-and-son act, the pair pass through the gates without an unkind look, even though John Aycliffe has just arrived in the city.

Which office does John Aycliffe hold, running the manor while Lord Furnival is away from his lands?

Steward is the post that puts John Aycliffe in charge of the village, and he is also kin to Lady Furnival, which ties his fortunes to hers.

What crime does John Aycliffe falsely pin on Crispin after the boy sees him meeting a stranger?

Theft is the invented charge that makes Crispin a hunted fugitive, and the killing of the priest who tries to help him is soon added to it.

Which weapon does Crispin find inside Lord Furnival's palace as he searches for Bear?

A dagger gives Crispin the nerve to confront John Aycliffe while searching for Bear, but he uses it to force a sworn oath from him, not to kill.

What does Crispin do with the cross of lead on leaving Great Wexly?

Leaves it on Aycliffe's body: the cross was the price Crispin had sworn to pay for Bear's freedom, and he keeps his word even though Aycliffe broke his.

What secret about Crispin do the words on his mother's lead cross finally reveal?

His father is a lord: the cross names Crispin as the son of Lord Furnival, born outside marriage, which makes him a threat to Lady Furnival's hold on the estate.

What does John Aycliffe demand from Crispin as a death tax right after the boy's mother is buried?

The ox was all Crispin had to work the land with, so handing it to the manor left the newly orphaned boy with no way to feed himself.

What is the real name of Bear, the huge red-bearded juggler who becomes Crispin's master and friend?

Orson Hrothgar is called Bear for his size and strength, and he likens himself to the animal's two natures: one sweet and gentle, the other a vicious brute.

Which stranger, first met at a village performance, later leads soldiers to Bear in Great Wexly?

A one-eyed man has his bowl snatched and juggled by Bear to amuse a village crowd, and he later turns up in the city pointing Bear out to the soldiers.

What name is given to the secret group of rebels, led by John Ball, that Bear belongs to?

The Brotherhood meets in secret in Great Wexly to plan a rising against the lords, but its members refuse to help Crispin once Bear has been taken.

Which young king was present when the real John Ball, a priest in Avi's Crispin novel, was executed?

Richard II had come to the throne as a ten-year-old in 1377, the very year the novel is set, and John Ball was put to death at St Albans in July 1381 with the king present.

Where in London did Avi see the case of medieval lead crosses that inspired Crispin's keepsake?

The British Museum displayed the crosses in its medieval section, and only after that research trip did Avi add the cross that gives the book its title.

What was Avi's working title for Crispin: The Cross of Lead when he first sent it to an editor?

No Name suited a hero who starts the story without one, and the manuscript was turned down by one editor before another publisher took it on.

What were Avi and his wife listening to in the car when the idea for his Crispin novel came?

A history lecture on the medieval period by UCLA's Teofilo Ruiz sparked the story on a drive out of Denver, and Avi later dedicated the novel to him.

Which 2006 novel by Avi continues the story of Crispin and Bear after they leave Great Wexly?

At the Edge of the World adds a girl named Troth to their little family and carries all three across the sea, as the middle book of a trilogy.

Which island do Crispin and Troth set out for in Avi's third Crispin novel, hoping to live free?

Iceland was Bear's dream of a place with no kings or lords, and after his death the two children try to reach it in his memory.

In what unusual form did Avi begin drafting Crispin: The Cross of Lead?

Unrhymed verse of a kind used in fourteenth-century England ran far too long, so Avi collapsed the lines into prose that still keeps much of the rhythm.

In which narrative voice is Avi's novel about Crispin told from start to finish?

First person keeps the reader inside Crispin's head, so each secret about his birth arrives only when he himself uncovers it.

Which skill, rare for a peasant, does Crispin learn that his mother had kept secret from him?

Reading and writing were her secret: she had written the words on the cross herself, yet she never taught her son a single letter.

After weeks of performing together on the road, what does Bear offer to make Crispin?

His apprentice is a real step up for Crispin, and in the book's last pages Bear goes further still and declares the boy free.

Which form of the language, the one Chaucer wrote in, was spoken in Crispin's England of 1377?

Middle English would not work in a modern novel, so Avi suggested its sound by borrowing the rhythms of the period's poets.

What was Bear training to become before he ran off with a band of traveling entertainers?

A monk is what his father meant him to be, enrolling him at twelve, but seven years later the laughter of a troupe of players lured him away.

What decorates the split hat worn by the juggler Bear when Crispin first sees him?

Bells cover the split jester's hat that tops Bear's ragged, colorful clothes, and Crispin later holds that hat upside down to collect coins from a crowd.

Where in Great Wexly does John Aycliffe catch sight of Crispin, forcing the boy to run for his life?

In the cathedral, Crispin kneels to worship and spots John Aycliffe among the crowd; he had slipped out alone after promising Bear to stay in their room.

What was Avi suffering from when the call came with news of the top prize for his Crispin novel?

The flu sent Avi home early from the librarians' conference where the winner was being chosen, and he joked that the good news cured every symptom.

Instead of clock times, what does Avi use to mark the time of day in Crispin's story?

Canonical hours such as Prime, Terce and Vespers were the Church's fixed times of daily prayer, and Avi used them to show how fully it shaped ordinary life.

Which holy man, on whose feast day Crispin was born, gives his name to the village's stone church?

Saint Giles, by legend a hermit born to noble parents in Athens, was famed for helping the poor, and Crispin claims him as his own patron.