King of Shadows by Cooper, Susan (1999) Hardcover

by Susan Cooper

WHAT'S NAT DOING IN SHAKESPEARE'S TIME?Only in the world of the theater can Nat Field find an escape from the tragedies that have shadowed his young life. So he is thrilled when he is chosen to join an American drama troupe traveling to London to perform A Midsummer Night's Dream in a new replica of the famous Globe theater.Shortly after arriving in England, Nat goes to bed ill and awakens transported back in time four hundred years -- to another London, and another production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Amid the bustle and excitement of an Elizabethan theatrical production, Nat finds the warm, nurturing father figure missing from his life -- in none other than William Shakespeare himself. Does Nat have to remain trapped in the past forever, or give up the friendship he's so longed for in his own time?

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Time Travel, Fiction, Historical, Childrens

Hardcover

First published October 1, 1999

About the author

Susan Cooper's latest book is the YA novel "Ghost Hawk" (2013)

Susan Cooper was born in 1935, and grew up in England's Buckinghamshire, an area that was green countryside then but has since become part of Greater London. As a child, she loved to read, as did her younger brother, who also became a writer. After attending Oxford, where she became the first woman to ever edit that university's newspaper, Cooper worked as a reporter and feature writer for London's Sunday Times; her first boss was James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Cooper wrote her first book for young readers in response to a publishing house competition; "Over Sea, Under Stone" would later form the basis for her critically acclaimed five-book fantasy sequence, "The Dark Is Rising." The fourth book in the series, "The Grey King," won the Newbery Medal in 1976. By that time, Susan Cooper had been living in America for 13 years, having moved to marry her first husband, an American professor, and was stepmother to three children and the mother of two.

Cooper went on to write other well-received novels, including "The Boggart" (and its sequel "The Boggart and the Monster"), "King of Shadows", and "Victory," as well as several picture books for young readers with illustrators such as Ashley Bryan and Warwick Hutton. She has also written books for adults, as well as plays and Emmy-nominated screenplays, many in collaboration with the actor Hume Cronyn, whom she married in 1996. Hume Cronyn died in 2003 and Ms. Cooper now lives in Marshfield MA. When Cooper is not working, she enjoys playing piano, gardening, and traveling.

Recent books include the collaborative project "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure" and her biography of Jack Langstaff titled "The Magic Maker." Her newest book is "Ghost Hawk."

Visit her Facebook pages: www.facebook.com/SusanCooperFanPage
www.facebook.com/GhostHawkBySusanCooper

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

So yes, Susan Cooper's King of Shadows, where 20th century Shakespearean actor Nat Field's ends up in historical 16th century London as a theatre apprentice (and under none other than William Shakespeare's tutelage at that) and indeed in the at that time just newly constructed Globe Theatre (having been mysteriously transported back in time from the 20th century, well actually, having been made to switch places with a 16th century apprentice of the same name ill with the bubonic plague) is for all intents and purposes an engaging, fun, and delightfully informative historical fiction romp. For author Susan Cooper absolutely and totally knows her history, and 16th century London thus remarkably and magically comes wonderfully alive under her pen (from the sights, the sounds, even the smells of the city to how the Globe as a theatre works, how it is run and managed). And yes indeed, having Nat also speak in an Appalachian drawl, read dialect, is really and truly an ingenious narrative device and tool, considering that many linguists now surmise that standard Elizabethan English would have sounded rather similar to the dialects and parlances of Appalachia (and this factoid, it of course and naturally smoothes out potential problems of communication and comprehension, as Nat Field due to his background, due to his hailing from Appalachian Tennessee, is therefore able to for the most part easily communicate in 16th century London, whereas a more standard modern American vernacular would likely sound very strange and perhaps even incomprehensible to a 16th century Londoner and vice versa).

But although I have definitely and personally simply enjoyed and continue to much appreciate King of Shadows as basically an entertaining time travel fantasy in and of itself (and about one of my favourite playwrights), there are also and nevertheless some rather heavy and potentially saddening issues and scenarios presented and approached within Susan Copper's narrative. Because main protagonist Nat is not just a talented young American Shakespearean actor, he is also dealing with much personal sadness and trauma (grief, loss, mental anguish both in the present and also later in the past, as the warm and nurturing father figure he encounters in William Shakespeare is subsequently torn from him when he is, and definitely against his wishes and desires, simply transported back to the present time once the reasons for which he was catapulted into the past in the first place no longer exist).

Now as a child reader, or perhaps more precisely, as an older Middle Grade reader, as I believe King of Shadows is suitable from age eleven or so onwards, I would likely have simply taken and accepted the above mentioned reasons as to why Nat Field has to be switched with his namesake and Elizabethan counterpart Nathan Field as a basic and yes, even logical given (that because the historic, Elizabethan Nathan Field is ill with the bubonic plague, he might easily infect and likely kill William Shakespeare and thus destroy his literary legacy and fame). However, my adult self is of course a bit more jaded, cynical and fond of basic logistics. And if Shakespeare catching the plague from Nathan Field would kill him and thus prevent him from penning many of his most famous plays, then these plays should really by simple logic and deduction not even exist in the present day (but they in fact do, yet are deemed as threatened and in need of rescuing).

Also and finally, I do kind of find it rather hard to completely believe that when the newly returned to the present Nat Field tells his story to his friends and fellow actors Gil and Rachel, they not only IMMEDIATELY believe him, but almost AUTOMATICALLY surmise the reasons as to why Nat was sent to the past in the first place (to protect Shakespeare, or rather, his literary legacy). For yes indeed and in my opinion, it would feel a bit more authentic and realistic for Gil and Rachel to originally have entertained at least some doubts, to not have immediately captured and focused on the reasons for Nat's "voyage" to 16th century London. All in all though, Susan Cooper's King of Shadows is both a fun and solidly readable time travel adventure, perfect for young Shakespeare and history enthusiasts, and really for anyone in the mood for a delightful and engaging escape from the present into the past (into 16th century England, London and its environs).

[Daisy May Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh this is good.

The protagonist, Nat Field, is a young actor who has come over to play at the Globe with his company. Somehow he goes to bed feeling ill and then wakes up in Shakespearean England. With Shakespeare. The rest of the novel is concerned with his adventures in this time period and also what happens when he returns to his 'normal' life.

And like I said, it's very very good. There's a heartrending moment when Nat almost falls in love with Shakespeare and Cooper conveys this hero worship with kindness and a light, nonjudgemental touch. There's a lot of warmth throughout the text, Nat and his love of his work, and Cooper and her patent love for Shakespeare.

The ending is excellent, genuinely so, but I can see how it may prove divisive. It's admittedly stagey but that reflects the topic of the book quite well so I felt it fitted. This is the only part where it lost a mark for me.

One of my pet hates with time-travel or historic books is that the side detail overwhelms the central thread of the story. Didn't happen here. What detail there was was very seamless and nicely interwoven. Good work all round and well worth a read.

[Sarah :) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was… so bad.
An entire book of an annoying boy with the personality of a wet noodle. His only character traits are fangirling over Shakespeare and talking about how smelly London is.
Unbelievably boring and a waste of time.

[GraceAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is excerpted from a review I wrote for the now-defunct Riverbank Review.
Susan Cooper, who won the Newbery Medal for The Grey King (of the Dark Is Rising sequence) has full control of her magic. In King of Shadows (the title of the book comes from Midsummer Night’s Dream) she shows that she understands the magic of the theater; how a group of people in an enclosed space can make the impossible happen. In this splendid novel for young people, she has translated this understanding into a ravishing story.

The tale wobbles a bit at the end, with Nat’s being sent to keep the plague from Shakespeare, that he might go on to write the rest of his plays. However, the power of words to move and to heal, the joys of being on stage and making the magic happen, and the richness of one boy’s connection to the greatest of English writers, is perfectly, limpidly clear.

[Claire Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written tale of time travel wrapped around some of Shakespeare’s most famous works. The central character, Nat, is a member of a theatre troupe for boys who perform Shakespeare’s plays as they are meant to be performed- at the Globe Theatre in London with an all male cast. They will be performing ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and Nat has been chosen to play the part of Puck. During a warm up exercise, Nat begins to feel very dizzy and sick and blacks out. Upon awakening he finds himself transported back to Elizabethan England where he learns to adjust to his new life and even meets William Shakespeare himself! Shakespeare instantly takes a shine to Nat and touts him as his best performer. Back in modern day England however, Nat’s Elizabethan counterpart with whom he has swapped lives lies in hospital suffering from bubonic plague. Once this has been cured (just long enough into the novel for the original Nat to become emotionally attached to Shakespeare) the two lads are shunted through time again to their own centuries where Nat struggles to acclimatise to his surroundings and misses Shakespeare desperately. The twist ending is an unexpected touch and explains the reasons for time travel well.

I highly rate this book as a good way to get younger students interested in Elizabethan history and introduce them to the works of Shakespeare. Although it can be a little gruesome in places, Cooper writes with fantastic accuracy about what Elizabethan life would actually be like, especially through the eyes of a modern day child. There is however room for character development of Elizabethan Nat although this opens doors for a class project along the lines of ‘imagine you are Elizabethan Nat transported to modern times. Write a diary entry as if you are him explaining how you feel and how life is different for you’.

The suggested age range for this book would be 10-11 years and could be used in a variety of ways in the classroom. Described above is one option, or it could be also used in a history project on the differences between Elizabethan and modern life.

[Arezoo Alipanah · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب داستان یه پسر بچه به اسم نیتن فیلده که با تیم تئاتر خودش قراره نقش Puck رو تو نمایشنامه ی رؤیای شب نیمه تابستان اجرا کنه، اما به طرز عجیبی یه روز حالش بد میشه و وقتی از خواب بیدار میشه خودش رو تو قرن ۱۶ پیدا میکنه، که از قضا تو اون زمان هم کسی با همین مشخصات قراره نقش puck رو اجرا کنه و این دوتا فرد از لحاظ زمانی با هم جابه‌جا میشن. این بین نیتن با شخص ویلیام شکسپیر ملاقات میکنه و بقیه ی ماجرا رخ میده.‌‌..

چیزایی که بیشتر از همه برای من تو این داستان جذاب بود اول توصیفات نویسنده از انگلستان قرن ۱۶ بود که خب واقعا برای من موضوع جذابیه، چه از لحاظ فرهنگی، چه از لحاظ پوشش، چه نحوه ی صحبت کردن و...
دومین نکته توجه و علاقه ی مردم به تئاتره. اینکه چقدر براشون این هنر اهمیت داره.
و سومین نکته که به نظرم خیلی جالب اومد مطرح کردن تاثیر تئاتر توی سیاست و غیرست، که درسته اشاره ی جزئی ای بهش شده بود ولی همین اشاره ی جزئی هم توی داستانی که مخاطب عامش کودک و نوجوان محسوب میشه جالبه دیگه:)
در مجموع لذت بردم‌ از همه چیز داستان و به نظرم به خوندنش می‌ارزید:)


پی‌نوشت: یه مقدار سیستم امتیاز دهیم رو عوض کردم، یعنی از نظر من همه ی کتابایی که میتونن آدمو به یه دنیای دیگه ببرن فوق العادن ولی وقتی پای مقایسه میاد وسط، حس میکنم دارم در حق بعضی کتابای محشر ظلم میکنم وقتی به همشون امتیاز بالا میدم. پس نگاه به سه تا ستاره نکنین! داستان خیلی خوبیه:)

About the book:
I liked the story. For me, it was like a movie :) imagining Nathan Field in England back in 1599!


About the audio book:
Jim Dale is just perfect! The way he narrates the books is like you are sitting in middle of London, and watching the characters talking to eachother. Can't say how thrilled I was when I found out he is the narrator of King of Shadows in audible.


From the book:

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;



It says, loving doesn't change just because someone isn't there, or because time gets in the way, or even death. It's always with you, keeping you safe, it won't ever leave you.”

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

“… Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken …”
Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

Fiction – and especially fantasy – for children and young adults is often disparaged by a certain class of critic (who should know better) as being light, frivolous or somehow lacking in serious intent or, worse, literary worth. And yet the concerns of young people, their hopes and anxieties, are worth respectful consideration because they are the adults of tomorrow formed by childhood experiences.

So it is with Susan Cooper’s King of Shadows, ostensibly a slight timeslip novel where a youngster finds themselves back four centuries in the past, about to perform at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. “Sheer fantasy” may be the verdict of the jaded reviewer, “wish fulfilment” the cynic’s assessment; but the author’s intentions are more than just an entertaining narrative – though it is that as well.

Nathan Field is part of a company of young American actors trained to perform some of Shakespeare’s plays in the newly-built replica Globe Theatre on Bankside in the late 20th century. But on the eve of rehearsals in London the youngster falls ill, and wakes to find himself another Nathan Field in a different London – in 1599.

Our protagonist is a talented orphan who has been chosen by an ex-pat British director called Arby to be part of a company performing at the new Globe Theatre in London. After weeks spent rehearsing in the US the young cast are lodged with various London families, but after the sudden onset of a fever Nathan wakes to find himself not in Mrs Fisher’s house but in a house with no mod cons, under the wing of actor Richard Burbage. He barely has time to recover from culture shock and to adjust to realise he’s living in late Tudor England before he’s rehearsing tumbling, fencing and speeches in the original Globe, newly located to the south bank of the Thames.

With a thorough grounding in plays like Julius Caesar he has little problem with fitting in: despite being severely provoked by some bullying his Appalachian accent proves close enough to Elizabethan English to be acceptable, and his acting and stage skills are developed enough for him to cope with being thrown in the deep end with The Devil’s Revenge and, especially, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; this last involves the character of Puck, the role Arby had particularly chosen him for in 1999.

But ever in Nathan’s mind are questions: how had he been projected back four centuries? why had he been singled out? how was he ever going to get back to the late 20th century? what would happen when his loan as a supposed boy actor from London’s St Paul’s School came to an end? And we too have urgent questions: will he ever know of that other Nathan Field who in modern London is simultaneously being treated for bubonic plague, and what will happen if his namesake dies?

In King of Shadows Nathan tells his own story, allowing us to experience things from his perspective. The overpowering smells, the sights, the meals, the cruel entertainments, the lack of hygiene, all is vividly brought to life, along with Nathan’s fears of being taken for some kind of witch for the odd things he says and does. But this is no mere historical fantasy, a picaresque narrative told for its own sake: at its heart it’s about a parentless young boy who, though brought up by his Aunt Jen, crucially misses the relationship he never had with a father. Will he discover a form of this relationship either with Arby the US director, with Richard Burbage the Globe actor, or with William Shakespeare, who will play Oberon to his Robin Goodfellow?

Susan Cooper’s timeslip fantasy barely falters in conjuring up Nathan’s several lives, whether fresh from North Carolina in present-day London, or in Tudor Southwark. She’d clearly thoroughly grounded herself in research on Shakespeare’s friends, colleagues and acquaintances, on Elizabethan theatre practices, and indeed on Nathan Field, in truth a boy actor from St Paul’s School who continued acting into adulthood as well as writing dramas, whose portrait – painted around the time of Shakespeare’s death – can still be seen in Dulwich’s Picture Gallery. (The academic Andrew Gurr gets a namecheck at one point.) Should we be surprised that Cooper’s personal involvement in this tale of young Master Field may have been inspired by the author’s own mother, whose maiden name was also Field?

The heart of this novel is, without a shadow of a doubt, the parent-child relationship that Nathan develops with Will Shakespeare. The playwright’s own son, Hamnet, had died in 1596, seemingly at around the same age as our fictional Nathan Field. The relationship between Oberon and his servant Robin Goodfellow or Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written about the time of Hamnet’s death, perhaps represents Shakespeare’s fond feelings for his young son, endearments such as “My gentle Puck, come hither” intendeded to prefigure some of Prospero’s dialogues with the spirit Ariel in The Tempest.

There are a few more twists and turns in the story which would be remiss of me to reveal, but hero-worship of a father figure and hopes that such fondness is reciprocated are at its core. It’s why Sonnet 116 is key; its “ever-fixèd mark” is the beacon that ensures the sailing ship reaches safety in its haven, whatever the tempest throws at it, a symbol of the parental love that remains steadfast forever.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Nat Field, a child actor from Tennessee who is in London as part of an all-boy troupe scheduled to give performances of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Julius Caesar at the newly opened recreation of the Globe Theatre—is thrown back three hundred years in time, to the London of 1599. Here he steps into the shoes of a different Nathaniel Field, a young actor on loan to Shakespeare's own troupe, which is preparing for a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that is to be attended by Queen Elizabeth I. Immersing in this other company of actors, and into this world of the past, Nat grows close to Shakespeare himself, finding in him a father figure, and confiding part of his own terrible past, in which his father committed suicide, being unable to live without his mother, who had died some time before. Eventually returning to his own time, Nat has trouble adjusting, and wonders why this extraordinary thing happened to him...

Having read, reread and loved many of author Susan Cooper's other books, from The Dark Is Rising Sequence to the Boggart novels, I have long meant to read King of Shadows, and am glad my current Cooper retrospective has allowed me to do so! I found it an engaging and entertaining time-slip adventure, enjoying the glimpse of Elizabethan London it afforded, and appreciating the deeper emotional undercurrents of Nat's story. It's clear the author knows her Shakespeare, as well as the history of the period to which Nat travels, and the reader feels as if they were really immersed in the London of 1599. The book was first published in 1999, two years after the completion of the Shakespeare's Globe theater, and is clearly meant to celebrate that event. The title here is a nod to Puck's description of Oberon, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, but also feels like it has a deeper, more emotional significance, as Shakespeare becomes a sort of shadow father to Nat, mirroring the real father in Nat's own timeline, who has been lost. Cooper's exploration and depiction of Nat's emotional journey is deeply moving, and I found myself close to tears a few times, while reading.

If I had any critique to make, it is that I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the ending. The reasons for sending Nat back in time become clear, but who, in the end, is Arby? Are we meant to think he is Richard Burbage, either very long-lived or time travelled himself into the future? Or is he Shakespeare himself? The motivation is clear, but by what mechanism was Nat sent back in time? These things weren't clear to me. Despite that fact, I still enjoyed this immensely, and would recommend it to any middle-grade reader (or above) who enjoys time slip adventures and stories about actors and the theater. The only proviso would be that it addresses issues of loss, grief and suicide, so adult caregivers (parents, teachers, etc) should proceed with caution, if these are difficult subjects for the young people in their charge.

[Ryne · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Read several years ago; reread now)
Rating: Probably a 4.5 if we're going to be exact.

Goodness, but this book is even better than I remembered. This is excellent storytelling with extremely interesting characters (well, mostly Nat and Shakespeare, but the others are all right). As a first-time reader of the novel, I was fascinated with the descriptions of Elizabethan England. This time I was especially drawn to the characterization for Nat and Shakespeare, and to the details about the "magic" of theater (something I appreciate a lot more now than I did as a teenager).

I was a little disappointed at the end of the novel when Cooper simultaneously wrapped up a lot of loose ends (e.g. "how/why did Nat get sent back through time?") and also left some things to suggestion (like how Arby somehow manipulated circumstances to have Nat sent through time. With this foreknowledge, he seems almost like an Old One from Cooper's "Dark is Rising" series.). However, at the same time, Cooper handled those ends so well that I can't really be too upset.

Random thought: Nat and his Aunt Jen still sound quite British, despite supposedly being American. Then again, if I wrote a book, I'm sure that all my characters would sound like my native nationality, so I should stop complaining.

Cover art critique (because why not): I think the cover picture here (with a half-Elizabethan Nat, and half skateboarder Nat) is aggravating and doesn't succeed in trying to attract young reader's attention. Nat doesn't look "cool" enough and he doesn't look intrigued; Cover-Nat looks like he's annoyed to be in the book. My favorite cover (the one I saw that, as a teen, attracted me to the book in the first place) showed a shadowed figured against a spiral of light. Much cooler. Thankfully, either aforementioned cover is better than the eyesore I saw elsewhere on the Internet, with a cracking Shakespeare bust and rats. Rats? Really?

Anyway, 'tis a good book. I do recommend it. Thusly. Verily. Muchly.

[hollyybel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for school.

I'm not saying it was a terrible book, but I don't really think it was worth my time.

If I hadn't been assigned it for school and if half my grade hadn't depended on it, I would never have picked it up. It was a book for a twelve-year-old, not a high school student.

It had an awesome storyline, good characters and a great ending, but it just lacked addictability. I fell asleep reading it.

Maybe its because our teacher forced us to read it and said 50% of our grade depended on it. Maybe that's what made me dislike this book. I don't know.

It wasn't torture, but it also wasn't bliss. I never shook with excitement, got butterflies in my stomach and it definitely wasn't a topic I would discuss with friends.

For once, a book was just a book.

For me, books are fantasies and journies, an escape when the world is hard. But this one was just words on a page, nothing more, nothing less.

Sorry all of you people who loved it.

I'm still confused about Arby though. What was goin on there?

Anyway, it was just a book. It didn't give me feelings, despite the intriguing storyline, good ending and vocabulary.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series as a kid and loving it. When I needed a book with Shakespeare as a character for a reading challenge this season, this seemed like a decent choice. Not really recommended for adult readers, but might be a good choice for a teen who is also reading Shakespeare in school, especially if reading A Midsummer Night's Dream. Indeed, I reread A Midsummer Night's Dream in parallel with this since the actors in this book are putting on the play. Engaging enough for what it is.

[Nadja · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short quick read. Susan Cooper captured good the world of Shakespeare's London. The characters and story itself I didn't find that exciting. A lot of things are rushed and unanswered.

All the World's a Page 2020: Read a book featuring Shakespeare as a character OR a book set during his lifetime.

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprisingly moving story about an orphan boy actor who is magically transported 400 years back from the 20th century to the original Globe theatre, where he performs in A Midsummer Night's Dream which he had been rehearsing for in his own time) and meets William Shakespeare himself.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nat has a tragic past but now has been chosen to be in an elite group of American boys and men who are going to act in the new Old Globe, Shakespeare's own theater in England. They are going to do it the old fashioned way with boys playing the parts of women. While he is boarding with a kind family who puts him up while he is at the Old Globe (well, the new one), he gets mysteriously ill and ends up actually working at the original Old Globe, from 500 years prior to his life. What has happened? Will he ever recuperate from the trauma in his life? He gets to act Puck in Midsummer alongside the actor who does Oberon...who happens to be the author of the play. What has caused this switch? Will he ever get back to his time? Will he ever feel whole again?
This is not one of Cooper's best books by any means. The magical writing of her great series, "The Dark is rising" is simply not present. I remember being quite disappointed with it when I first read it. However, now I find it much better. It is about the wounds that love can bring. It is about the healing the arts can bring. It is about what Shakespeare may have actually been like as a person. It is about theatrical history. Ultimately it is about love and kindness to one another. Recommended particularly if you know the child is suffering real loss, or if you know you have someone bitten by the theatrical bug.

[Kimberley Pecino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable historical middle grade read - a bit slow, and a few instances of info-dumping with not much plot to pull it along, but as a sucker for Shakespeare, I did enjoy it! Would recommend to older children and young adults interested in The Bard.

[Mayaj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holds.
Uppppppp.
I loved this book as a kid, loved it possibly more as an adult.

[Eleanor Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a child I read the Dark is Rising sequence and loved it. I read Seaward and Dawn of Fear, and still have them all on my bookshelves today. But those were all the books I knew that Susan Cooper had written, and somehow it never occurred to me that some day she would write some more! Maybe I even thought she was dead? Anyway, when I spotted this at the library I picked it up and brought it home based on her name alone, and today I read it. In four hours flat. Despite stopping to cook and eat tea and read a chapter or so of Hiccup to Matthew. As you may guess from that, and the five stars, I loved it. It would make a great companion piece to Atwood's Hagseed if you wanted to study modern thoughts around Shakespeare plays! I will now have to look out for her other more recent works!

[Maureen E · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read this book years ago and decided that my good memory of it was worth going back and trying it again. I was right. This is one extremely well researched, thought out, and written book.

Nat Field is a young actor recruited by a somewhat mysterious man named Arby to play Puck in Arby's version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The company of actors are all boys aged 11-18. They will play in the brand-new reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe. Just before the play opens Nat falls ill. He is taken to the hospital where he is diagnosed with bubonic plague.
Meanwhile Nat wakes up in 1599, four hundred years before his own time. Everyone believes him to be Nat Field from St. Paul's school, loaned to Shakespeare's company to play Puck to Shakespeare's Oberon in a very important performance of the "Dream." Shakespeare and Nat quickly connect, forming a strong personal bond. Nat, who has suffered much loss in his life, is a kindred spirit to Shakespeare, who recently lost his son Hamnet. Their relationship is one of the most believable and warm parts of the book. Cooper's Shakespeare is one you want to be the real Shakespeare.

The company is nervous as it is believed that Queen Elizabeth I herself may come to see the play. But the big day arrives and all goes well. Nat, a boy from 1999, meets Queen Elizabeth.
After the play Nat realizes that his current situation cannot stay the way it is. Nat Field will be returning to St. Paul's where Nat will instantly be rejected. He promises Shakespeare to come back when he is grown and act with him again.

I am a weepy person. And I cried at the end of this book. It was beautiful. And you know, I believed it, the possiblity of it. I can't really say anything else because I'll completely spoil the book, but the characterizations were such that it felt right to me. Bravo Susan Cooper!

[C.J. Milbrandt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nat's been chosen for an elite all-boys acting troupe called The Company of Boys, made up of kids from all over the United States. They're rehearsing two of Shakespeare's plays—A Midsummer's Night Dream and Julius Caesar—which they'll perform in London at the New Globe Theater. But something's strange. And then Nat wakes up in 1599, in the place of another Nat Field, who's also in the role of Puck. And his Oberon will be played by William Shakespeare himself.

Training camps and dress rehearsals. Actors' apprentices and alehouses. Funky smells and questionable sanitation. Bear-baiting and bad teeth. Fairy kings and poets. Cooper's story managed to combine so many of my favorite things that I stayed up far too late, then finished all in a rush first thing the next morning. Unabashedly adored everything, from the historical tidbits and roles of the theater crew to the allusions to Shakespeare's plays and poetry.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toward the end of his life, when he was writing little, and acting less, he wrote one more great play, and he wrote you into it.

That line always hit me hard. It still does. The five star rating is not solely due to nostalgia: this is a good one. The ending may require more suspension of disbelief now than it did when I was ten, but I'm fine with that. This is a lovely atmospheric story about art and family and escape, and yet somehow, despite being written by Susan Cooper, it seems to be an overlooked title.

I wish it wasn't. This is a book to which I directly attribute my love of time travel and of Shakespeare. If only King of Shadows was more widely remembered. And read.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a well written little jaunt into the past. The ending is interesting and makes me wonder if it could be tied in with The Dark is Rising! Not the most complex plot, but interesting nonetheless. I suppose it could do with some more period detail, but it's a children's book, so the question is whether the target audience would be that interested in that.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for time slip novels and this is a great one about an American boy actor on a visit to London who changes places with a boy actor of the same name from Shakespeare's time and acts on stage at the Globe with Shakespeare himself.

Probably aimed at around age 12 and I'm not sure most kids would pick up the emotional impact of the father-figure aspect to the story, but I loved it.

[Lucy Fifield · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK book, but it had a lot of language... :(

[Wakako · Rating 5 out of 5]

A historical fantasy novel to absorb you

This fantasy/realistic historical book could absorb you.

‘King of Shadows’ by an English multi award winning author, Susan Cooper will give you a magical time. If you like time travel fantasy or realistic historical stories, this book is for you.

Once you start reading this book, I promise, you can’t stop.

An American boy called Nathan Field (who is very creative and intelligent. I love him!) is the main character in this novel. He loves acting and he is very talented. He plays in an acting company of boys (he was chosen to be the member of the company). The boss of the company is Arby. He is the boss, director, teacher and actor of the company (basically he is the only leader in the company). He decides everything about the company and the plays.

The company was going to play at The Globe in London, to rehearse the play. (Have you ever been to the Globe? It still exists!). They travelled to London for the rehearsal of the play -few weeks before the actual play began. One night, in London Nat suddenly started to feel sick, so he went to bed and fell asleep. The next time he opened his eyes, he was in a completely different world…

Susan Cooper is a genius writer who describes things such as smell, noise, feeling, tastes so richly, it made me feel like I was in the scene with Nat. (Although, sometimes there are things that I don’t want to imagine...) There are lots of scenes that are difficult to imagine in this book because she writes about an old period but the letters make me see the scene, when I close my eyes.
There are sad, mysterious, happy and funny scenes in this book. It made me laugh, cry, guess and be confused. Because it played a lot with my feelings, it made me kept reading without getting bored, and it kept on making me turn the pages. When you realise how much you read, you will be surprised.

All age groups can enjoy this story in a different way.

I obviously rate this book 10/10.

[Lucie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s 1999 and scouted out by the mysterious Arby, Nathan Field is flown over from America to London to play Puck in an all boys production of William Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream at The Globe. That is, until he catches a 24-hour bug and suddenly wakes up in an entire different century, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of Elizabethan England. He finds himself playing Puck in the original ‘Dream’, with the King of Shadows himself playing Oberon. Somehow, Nat has to fit in with his fellow actors, but will he be able to survive undiscovered and return to the present day?

Although there were a couple violence issues, the King of Shadows is impeccably written: all the scenes come alive in a way I have very rarely seen. The characters are strong and believable and the plot twisted many times which kept the story interesting.

The story would have been better for me if the play Nat was acting in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was explained more. Not everyone knows what it is, and was often referred to as ‘the Dream’ without any explanation. I was also disappointed by the ending, I shall not say much because I might spoil it for you, but I found it unfinished, not precise enough,with too many questions left in my head for my liking.

This book has a couple of scenes about death and near death where the sensitive reader may be upset, especially with the quality of writing Susan Cooper uses which made me imagine every detail. I also found several words like sh-t, cr-p and d-mn.

I especially enjoyed how real the King of Shadows felt to me. All the details made sense and really created the atmosphere of the 1600’s. I could barely put the book down at the end of each lesson, it always left me on tenterhooks. I particularly admire how historically correct it is. (Most of the characters were real people in the Elizabethan era.) This book made me cry one chapter, laugh the next, which is very rare since I don't often get very emotional whilst reading books.

All in all, I absolutely loved this book, and I greatly recommend it to anyone who has a passion for historical fiction.

[Lourdes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Magnificent Book King of Shadows

King of Shadows is a fantastic book by an amazing writer, Susan Cooper, an award winning author because of her fabulous ”mystery” books.

Nathan Field is an American teen with a hard life, a theatre lover and an acting star. He totally stands out over the other boys of his acting company, that is why sometimes they are not nice to him.

He flies to London to perform with the acting group, but just before their important play, he gets really sick… The first case of Bubonic plague in centuries. He falls asleep and the next day he wakes up in another century and on another bed… If you want to know more about Nathan’s adventures, then you will have to buy this book!

This is a great book, not just because I love novels with a lot of plot twists, sincerely, because I enjoy the way Susan Cooper describes every single detail, like, the smells, the views... I just love it!

I would totally recommend this book to you if you are a teen that loves to turn pages and not stop reading. (If you are a little bit older it’s fine too!)

I’m being 100% honest if I tell you that I know that I will read this book again and again!

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started out reading this book to my Year 8 English class periodically, but this was then phased out by the team. I eventually decided to finish it on summer break, so a bit patchy on the review. Definitely best read with some knowledge of Shakespeare’s history and key works… definitely a bit mind bending with lots of characters and names, but I found Nat’s character and struggles compelling. Definitely a fun way to introduce YA readers to Shakespeare and Elizabethan times.

[Anthony Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story about a young actor Nathan Field where he gets haunted by echoes of the past and catches a mysterious sickness. He gets into a sleep but after he wakes up, he realizes he’s not in the in the present but in the 1599 and Nat is now an actor at the original one. Where he gets to meet William Shakespeare face to face. He was the real king of shadows and Nat gets to be in a place of excitement and danger. But will he arrive back to the 21st century or remain there.

[Natalie Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read King of Shadows with my mom when I was about 12. I was immediately drawn into the immersive world of Elizabethan England, and the bright fire of Shakespeare's spirit. I keenly felt Nat Field's intense desire for family, creative scope, safeness, and love. Don't skip it because of the childlike cover, it is a great time investment for any young adult (or full adult) who wants to feel most of the whole scope of human emotion in a single book.

[Valentina · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘King of Shadows’ is a magnificent page-turner written by the masterful multi award winning writer Susan Cooper. It’s a time travelling historical novel. If you like mysterious, historical or time travelling books, I guarantee that this book is for you.

It all starts with a young actor, Nathan Field. He is an American boy who goes to London with an all boys acting company. The night before his play he didn’t feel well; he got ill and was taken to hospital.

Boom! Nat went back centuries. The people were talking strangely to him (that’s how he realises he has travelled through time)... Harry (the guy that welcomes him) takes him to ‘The Globe’; and that’s where he meets the ‘King of Shadows’ himself!

This book is incredibly enjoyable. You can learn a lot about history and Elizabethan England because Cooper used real history to make us feel what Nat is feeling.

People that like page turners or historical fiction: this book is for you.