The following version of this book was used to create the guide: DiCamillo, Kate. The Beatryce Prophecy. Candlewick Press, 2021.

DiCamillo’s novel is divided into 43 chapters, plus an epilogue. At the start of the story, a monk named Brother Edik finds Beatryce curled up next to the monastery’s growth. From her past, Beatryce recalls only her name. Brother Edik raises her and loves her.

Jack Dory arrives in a village after witnessing the murder of his parents by a robber in the woods. Granny Bibspeak takes him in. She lives four more years, loving him all the while.

Jack’s impeccable memory designate him as the village’s messenger. In a world where no one except monks and royals can read, his job is especially useful. One day, a sick soldier has him carry a message to a monastery. Jack goes and finds Beatryce there. He is shocked to learn that Beatryce can read and write. The monks agree to send her along with the goat, Answelica, to record the dying soldier’s confessions. Beatryce does so and learns that the soldier is responsible for killing two boys.

While Beatryce is with the sick soldier, another soldier on horseback approaches Jack and inquires after a missing girl. Jack tells him nothing, but immediately tells Beatryce that the king’s soldiers are after her. After stealing the soldier’s sword, two of them decide to run away to the woods.

In the woods, they meet an old man named Cannoc. Cannoc is a jolly fellow. He loves to laugh. He manages to convince Jack and Beatryce to descend from their hiding spot in the trees. He takes them to his home: a room carved into a tree. On the way there, he reveals that he used to be king but that he ran away from the castle to live in the woods.

Meanwhile, soldiers question the monks at Brother Edik’s monastery. He departs in search of Beatryce. Finding no trace of her at Jack’s village, he sets off into the woods.

Brother Edik is confronted by a robber in the woods. He is saved by Cannoc, who brings him to his home. There, Brother Edik reunites with Beatryce. She shares a dream she had with him and the others. She is Beatryce of Abelard. Her brothers and tutor were murdered by the same sick soldier whose confessions she recorded. Her father died when she was young but her mother still lives. Brother Edik tells her of a prophecy he recorded when he was young: “There will one day come a girl child who will unseat a king and bring about a great change” (66).

When Beatryce cannot sleep that night, she exits Cannoc’s home for some fresh air. She is immediately kidnapped by a soldier and brought to a castle. Her friends set off after her the next morning.

Beatryce is put into a dungeon at Castle of Abelard. When she is visited by the king’s evil counselor, she realizes that he is a tutor who was fired by her mother. Beatryce comforts herself by telling herself a story she made up about a mermaid named Rosellyn. She repeats the story to the king when he visits her.

On the way to the castle, Jack, Cannoc, and Brother Edik encounter the same robber who murdered Jack’s parents. Ultimately, Jack decides not to kill him. He takes the robber’s knife and lets him go.

When the three of them arrive at the castle, they tell the guards they are prophets with a message for the king. Once inside, Cannoc reveals that he is King Ehrengard. The soldiers remember him and kneel to him. They break into the dungeon and free Beatryce and her mother.

Cannoc makes Beatryce’s mother, Aslyn, queen. He serves as her advisor. Queen Aslyn has Beatryce, Jack, and Answelica go out into the world to teach people to read. Brother Edik makes Cannoc’s home his own, where he record’s Beatryce’s mermaid story.