King of shadows by Susan Cooper
Rollercoasters series. Oxford University Press, 2015 (1999). ISBN
9780198328889
(Age: 11+) Highly recommended. Shakespeare, London, Acting. Nat
Field an American actor wins a place in the prestigious Company of
Boys, which means he is to spend a month in London rehearsing and
then putting on a Shakespearean play in the new Globe Theatre. He is
excited to meet his fellow actors and the family with whom he is
staying. But when he is transported back to London of four hundred
years before, he is transfixed by the differences in the city and
its inhabitants. Readers will be too, as Susan Cooper builds an
image of Shakespeare's London with a meticulous eye for the detail
of life four centuries ago. I found myself re-reading paragraphs to
wonder at the times, and I was amazed at the ease with which she
detailed the theatre scene, the acting, writing and watching of
these plays in Southwark. And all done within the context of a
mesmerising story, one which will hold readers' attentions to the
end. In Elizabethan times, Nat is befriended by Shakespeare himself
and is at his side when brought into the presence of Queen Elizabeth
herself, after appearing as Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream.
But chapters in the twentieth century have Nat in St Guy's Hospital
in London, struck down with the plague, something unheard of in our
time. In hospital he is a figure of mystery, given his accent and
living habits, redolent of Elizabethan times.
A rivalry with one of the other boy actor has Nat saving his life
through a technique for stopping choking used in his own time, and
so he is seen as a witch by some of the crew.
All the threads come together in an exciting conclusion to this
wonderfully informative and inventive tale.
One of a new OUP series called, Rollercoasters, the books
are reprints of exciting and challenging books, ones which OUP
supports with teacher notes and resources, encouraging their use in
middle school. Classes or individual students reading Shakespeare'
Midsummer Night's Dream or his sonnets will have their
interest piqued with their inclusion in this story.
Fran Knight