Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Shakespeare's Secret



Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach, 2005

Hero and her older sister Beatrice were named for characters in Shakespeare's play Much Ado about Nothing. Arriving in a new town, Hero is facing a school year as a new kid with jokes and questions about her name. Unlike Beatrice, Hero is not socially adept and does not make friends easily. She does become acquainted with their older next-door neighbor, Mrs. Roth who tells her about the Murphy Diamond, a valuable gem that might be hidden in Hero's house. Surprisingly she is also befriended by a popular 8th grader, Danny who is the son of the city's police chief and also fascinated by the diamond's where-abouts.

Hero discovers a mysterious connection between the diamond, Anne Boleyn and Shakespeare's plays which fires her imagination.

This plot is cleverly drawn with historical details and intrigue. Hero and Danny are searching for more than a diamond and the reader is hoping they find their heart's desire.

I truly enjoyed this novel. The mystery is very satisfying. One can hope it would also excite a reader's interest in Shakespeare.

8 comments:

Michele said...

This book sounds great ! I must see if it's available over here yet, and then pester the public library for it... I had to laugh today, I was collecting the sequels to a book I'm currently reading (Song Quest by Katherine Roberts) and the young assistant in the children's section of the library, suddenly said, "How old is your child?" I looked at her in blank astonishment and said "My child ? What child ?" She gestured at the books I was now holding and said, "Aren't they for your child?" so I laughed and said, "No, I read children's literature - a lot of it is better than the stuff that's churned out for adults to read !" I don't think she quite knew what to make of that...

Camille said...

That is too funny. Honestly, when someone recommends a "grown-up" book to me I often really enjoy it but for my "regular" reading, these are the books I enjoy most. I just finished two books that I have to review, Tales of the Otori, that are YA fantasy set in Japan. I cannot think of a "grown-up" book I have enjoyed as much in recently.

Michele said...

Well since I mostly read fantasy, I do get to read some good books written specifically for grown ups, but I was very amused... I had assumed children's librarians were used to the phenomenon of grown ups reading children's books ! The public library does not have Shakespeare's Secret, but according to the web, it's been out over here since May, so I'll "beg" them to get it in for me...

I confess to abandoning the Tales of Otori series after the second book, which I did not enjoy as much as the first. The second book seemed to drag, so I never made it as far as the third.

Camille said...

I did liked the first one better too but I am intrigued enough to find the next two. We are reading the same books again.

Michele said...

Well not quite - I read the first two Tales of Otori last summer... I just happened to notice you'd mentioned the series and thought I'd comment... I'll tell you who is also reading them at the moment, though - Susan over at Chicken Spaghetti.

Right now I'm about to start the third of the Echorium Sequence by Katherine Roberts, which I'm in a rush to finish simply so I can finally start on Western Shore the third of Juliet E McKenna's 'Aldabreshin Compass' series (for grown ups, this one).

Michele said...

I requested that the library find me a copy of Shakespeare's Secret today... And ended up in a conversation about the impact of Roger Lancelyn Green's work on child readers - but I'm still not quite sure how the librarian and I got from one to the other since I wasn't actually borrowing or requesting anything by RLG !

Camille said...

OK, now I have to go look up Roger Lancelyn Green.

Michele said...

I just wanted to say thanks for reviewing this as I finally got my hands on this book this week (it turned out that it wasn't published in the UK until this year) and I thoroughly enjoyed it ! What a brilliant book. Very well researched and written. I've just written a review of it for my own Blog.