I love Scott O'Dell but this was not one of my favorite books by this prolific author. The positives are that his writing is lush, satisfying to the senses and filled with lots of appropriate details of the time that St. Francis of Assisi lived.
The story revolves around a young, aristocratic girl who becomes a copyist, writing out the scriptures on vellum. She becomes obsessed with the young Francis and follows him throughout the book. This is all well and good but it seems unlikely and at times forced. The plot and some of the characters fell flat for me. Francis, at times a jester, a buffoon, a mystic does not really come to life for me. One of the stronger characters is Sister Clare, who went on to found the women's order of the Franciscan Friars.
I did learn a great deal about the 5th Crusade and the world hasn't changed all that much. We are still fighting the infidels in Syria. I also did not like this edition's cover of the book and did not feel it really did justice to the overall story.