Sid Fleischman’s The Whipping Boy, 1987 Newbery winner, manages to accomplish a lot in its less than 90 pages. Despite its title, which hints at a grim theme, Fleischman makes this a fast-paced and funny tale.
Quick-witted but impoverished Jemmy finds himself playing the role of whipping boy in a royal household. Jemmy serves Prince Horace, a spoiled brat who doesn’t care very much about anyone’s feelings – except his own. So Jemmy is beaten several times a day. (It is historically accurate that a prince in the 16th and 17th centuries could not be spanked, and so had a whipping boy who felt the consequences when the prince misbehaved.)
One day, the prince – not yet the brightest jewel in the crown – decides to run away, and orders Jemmy to accompany him. The two promptly fall into the hands of two highwaymen who plan to ransom the prince to his father.
There is an attempted escape, a chase, a bear, a sewer – and a plot that plays itself out to a satisfying conclusion. Fleischman nicely sketches the friendship that develops between the two boys, Jemmy’s resourcefulness, and the character growth of the prince.
