Lawlor offers a rip-roaring tale about Will Shakespeare as a wild adolescent with a touch of ADD. Whether bedding the plain barmaid Mopsa or playing midnight pranks with his sodden Uncle Hal, Will manages to spend as little time as possible in his father’s glove-making establishment, where he is officially an apprentice. He lies and daydreams and chases after theater folk and is mean to his sister, who has learned to read and write. When a friend asks Will to write love sonnets so he can woo his ladylove, Will does so, stealing a few lines from his sister, and then falls head-over-heels for the girl himself. Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway, an older woman (she’s 26) tired of her stepfamily’s house seduces a most willing Will. Weaving a few known facts of Shakespeare’s early life with generous swaths of historical color, Lawlor paints a vivid and reckless portrait, ending with the birth of Will and Anne’s daughter Susanna and only the tiniest glimmer of what rough magic is to come. (Historical fiction. 14+)
