Widge is an orphan with a rare talent for shorthand. His fearsome master has just one demand: steal Shakespeare's play "Hamlet"--or else. Widge has no choice but to follow orders, so he works his way into the heart of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare's players perform. As full of twists and turns as a London alleyway, this entertaining novel is rich in period details, colorful characters, villainy, and drama.
"A fast-moving historical novel that introduces an important era with casual familiarity." --School Library Journal, starred review
Publishers Weekly
A myriad of anachronisms mar this predictable tale of a Yorkshire orphan. Widge, the 14-year-old narrator, is sent by a rival theater manager to steal the as-yet-unpublished Hamlet in 1601 London and ends up an apprenticing actor instead. Blackwood (Wild Timothy), a playwright and amateur actor himself, clearly knows Shakespeare, but is a bit cloudy on some details of the Elizabethan era. Widge mentions square city blocks, describes his dinner kept warm on the back of the stove and notes that a man wounded in a duel had recovered in a hospitalthis in an age of unplanned cities, meals cooked over open fires and hospitals that were for terminally ill paupers. Blackwood excels, however, in the lively depictions of Elizabethan stagecraft and street life. Lonely outcast Widge is a sympathetic character, but his frequent shifts in voice from Yorkshire dialect to 20th-century American slang may be disconcerting to readers, and the villainy of Widge's nemesis seems all too familiar. Ages 9-12. (May)
Categories:
- Teen & Young Adult
- Literature & Fiction
- Performing Arts
- Theater
- Performing Arts
- Literature & Fiction
Publisher : Puffin
Author : Gary Blackwood
Language : English
Edition : Reprint
Published :2000-07-27
Number Of Pages : 216
Binding : paperback
ISBN-10 : 0141305959
ISBN-13 : 9780141305950
Item weight : 0.35 lb
Dimensions : 0.7 in x 5.1 in x 7.7 in
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