“The Whipping Boy,” by Sid Fleischman, illustrations by Peter Sis
Greenwillow Books, New York, 1986, 90 pages, Grades 3-5.
When children misbehave, discipline is necessary. But exactly what type of discipline do you recommend? The early Puritans in Massachusetts believed that if you “spared the rod, you would spoil the child.” This rather harsh form of punishment could get quick results, but it usually came with resentment.
In more recent periods, problematic children are sent to “time out,” or engaged in discussions about the cause of the misbehavior. This type of parenting is a significant improvement over the Puritan forms of discipline.
Historically, a curious problem developed in royal households regarding child discipline. How do you punish a prince? You can’t really whip the heir to the throne, so what should you do? The solution was to find a “whipping boy” and punish the child in front of the prince. The prince would supposedly be so mortified by seeing the other boy whipped that he would change his behavior. But does this theory actually work? Sid Fleischman has written a delightful account of such a situation. The name of this award winning book is “The Whipping Boy.”
Prince Horace is a very proud but lonely boy. He deliberately disobeys the king to draw attention to himself. But the king misses all of these signals and continues to neglect the Prince. As Prince Horace gets into more and more trouble, whipping boys are brought to the palace and flogged in front of him for his behavior. Quite frankly, the Prince doesn’t care how many boys are flogged. He is so rude and selfish that everyone begins calling him “Prince Brat.” He hears the name, now and again, and hates it.
At last a whipping boy named Jemmy-From-The-Streets is brought to the palace. Much to Prince Brat’s anger, Jemmy will not cry when he is being whipped for the Prince’s misbehavior. As Jemmy shadows the Prince throughout the day, he goes to all the classes taught in the castle. While the Prince wastes his time in school, Jemmy soon learns to read, write and do computations. Jemmy has become a learned street urchin. Prince Brat finally decides he has had enough of palace life and plans to run away. Jemmy also wants to leave the palace as he is tired of the beatings. The two boys escape and run into a forest.
There they meet two desperadoes named Hold-Your-Nose-Billy and Cutwater. They are both illiterate but think they can get money for the Prince if a ransom note stating their demands is delivered to the palace. Since Prince Brat can’t read or write, the clever Jemmy must write the letter and pretend to be the Prince. With the outlaws confused, the adventures begin.
What happens to the two boys? Do they ever get back to the palace? What do they learn about telling fibs to the outlaws? Can someone really confuse people about their identity? What happens to self-centered Prince Brat during all of these misadventures? What does Jemmy learn about himself? To find out the answers to these questions, go to the library and check out this rollicking novel, “The Whipping Boy” by Sid Fleischman.
“The Whipping Boy” won the Newbery Medal for the novel making the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature in 1987. In addition to its high literary quality, the novel is delightful to read. There are scoundrels and heroes and funny, delightful scenes throughout the book.
Through Fleischman’s talented writing, we see characters develop from being immature and selfish into people filled with admirable traits. This book is simply a delight and one that your children will find pleasure reading. Enjoy!
