A new Robin Hood rides in London, robbing gentlemen, humiliating rivals in Elizabeth’s Court, and threatening the reputation of Shakespeare’s theater. When actors end up dead or missing, the theater company—already seen as unsavory by many—stands to be further shamed. It’s a thrilling story of cutpurses, highwaymen, murder, intrigue, and eventually the midnight dismantling of the Burbages’ Theater. In the middle of all of this is young Richard Malory, apprentice in The Lord Hunsdon’s Men. Kit Glover, his fellow apprentice, is suspected of being an accomplice to thieves, and Richard puts his life on the line to find the truth. In the meantime, the shows must go on and readers are treated to many details of Elizabethan theater: boys playing female characters, the staging of battle scenes, the midsummer plague season, Shakespeare’s rivals, and the behavior of theater audiences. At its heart, this is about how the theater thrives and “how a good play is like life,” and fittingly, the language of the story sparkles. “Spoken words, things of shaped and polished air that flash but once, then flicker away” are the currency of Shakespeare’s plays and of Cheaney’s prose. This lively second novel in the author’s Shakespearean drama (The Playmaker, 2000) is a fine addition to the growing body of literature about Shakespeare’s world, including Susan Cooper’s King of Shadows and Gary L. Blackwood’s The Shakespeare Stealer. (map, cast of characters, historical note) (Fiction. 10+)
Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-81433-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This astonishing book will generate much-needed discussion.
After 15-year-old Will sees his older brother, Shawn, gunned down on the streets, he sets out to do the expected: the rules dictate no crying, no snitching, and revenge.
Though the African-American teen has never held one, Will leaves his apartment with his brother’s gun tucked in his waistband. As he travels down on the elevator, the door opens on certain floors, and Will is confronted with a different figure from his past, each a victim of gun violence, each important in his life. They also force Will to face the questions he has about his plan. As each “ghost” speaks, Will realizes how much of his own story has been unknown to him and how intricately woven they are. Told in free-verse poems, this is a raw, powerful, and emotional depiction of urban violence. The structure of the novel heightens the tension, as each stop of the elevator brings a new challenge until the narrative arrives at its taut, ambiguous ending. There is considerable symbolism, including the 15 bullets in the gun and the way the elevator rules parallel street rules. Reynolds masterfully weaves in textured glimpses of the supporting characters. Throughout, readers get a vivid picture of Will and the people in his life, all trying to cope with the circumstances of their environment while expressing the love, uncertainty, and hope that all humans share.
This astonishing book will generate much-needed discussion. (Verse fiction. 12-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3825-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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