Fakespeare: Star-Crossed in Romeo and Juliet

Fakespeare #2

by M.E. Castle, Daniel Jennewein (Illustrations)

Three kids get lost inside Shakespeare’s book and must help Romeo and Juliet finish their story in order to return home in this silly middle school series!

Dear Reader,

You are reading this because you expressed interest in the Get Lost Book Club.

Are you ready to embark on a journey to Italy, where you’ll find yourself right in the middle of a major feud between two rival pizza-making the Montagues and the Capulets? A swordsman and perfumer will hunt you. There will be disguises, fake pizza, and tomato fights (make sure to duck!). You must help Becca, her stepbrother Sam, and her dog Rufus convince Romeo Montague to ask Juliet Capulet on a date, or you will all be stuck in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet forever!

Intrigued? Worried? Downright terrified? You should be. But if you’re ready for an adventure, step right up and follow me. It’s time to get lost in Romeo and Juliet .

Sincerely,
The Narrator
(with the approval of author M.E. Castle)

An Imprint Book

304 pages, Hardcover

Published May 23, 2017

About the author

M.E. Castle is a writer and actor working in the glorious center of the universe, New York City. He graduated from Oberlin College in 2008 with a degree in Theatre and has written a number of short stories, only a handful of which have ever been seen by an audience wider than his closest friends.

Throughout his college years, he was one of the leading writers of the noir detective radio drama The Dead Hear Footsteps, to which he also lent his vocal talents.

Popular Clone is his first novel.

Reviews

[Layla Conceicao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and all out pizza war!

[Marcie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this edition of Fakespeare, Becca and her step-brother Sam fall into the Romeo and Juliet story. There, they must make sure that Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love, or be stuck in the book forever. Despite the title, this book in not a re-telling or new version of the original Shakespearean story. The main plot revolves around the siblings trying to get back to their reality, while encountering a few familiar characters, and some text, from the original story. Overall, this would be an entertaining book for upper elementary and middle school students who are curious about classic literature and enjoy a bit of potty humor. The bold illustrations and short chapters also make it inviting.

[Betwixt the Pages · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three kids get lost inside Shakespeare’s book and must help Romeo and Juliet finish their story in order to return home in this silly middle school series!

Dear Reader,

You are reading this because you expressed interest in the Get Lost Book Club.

Are you ready to embark on a journey to Italy, where you’ll find yourself right in the middle of a major feud between two rival pizza-making families: the Montagues and the Capulets? A swordsman and perfumer will hunt you. There will be disguises, fake pizza, and tomato fights (make sure to duck!). You must help Becca, her stepbrother Sam, and her dog Rufus convince Romeo Montague to ask Juliet Capulet on a date, or you will all be stuck in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet forever!

Intrigued? Worried? Downright terrified? You should be. But if you’re ready for an adventure, step right up and follow me. It’s time to get lost.

Sincerely,

The Narrator

Rating: 4.5/5 Penguins
Quick Reasons: this was, throughout, laugh out loud hilarious; I LOVE the new "spins" that M.E. Castle put on this classic; the morals and lessons are whimsical, witty, and well-done; the nods to the original play were woven in to this story brilliantly

HUGE thanks to M.E. Castle and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for sending me a gorgeous hardcover copy of this title in exchange for an honest review! This in no way altered my read of or opinions on this book.

"Just hold on a second," Sam said, staying still and crossing his arms. He addressed the empty space above his head. "Who gave you the right to tell us what to do?"

Stop that. This isn't a conversation. This is a narration. Now then, Rufus's whining was starting to get--

"Yeah?" Becca said, fists on her hips. "Maybe we'll just stand here and do nothing. What're you going to narrate then?"

Okay, Penguins. Here's what's going to happen next: I'm going to FREAK THE FRACK OUT about this hilarious, awesome book...and then you're going to drop everything you're doing for the next few hours and go read it! Trust me, the time is well worth it, and passes in a fit of rib-cracking laughter and manic cackling that's bound to make your (insert family, roommate, lover, children, pet, wallpaper, violent pink flamingo, etc. here) wonder just what it is you're up to. Which is GOOD, because that means more Penguins wanting to pick this book up, and that means my army will grow even bigger! Yes. This is such a great plan, I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner!

This book is, as I mentioned a time or two earlier, absolutely gut-bustingly hilarious! Within a page, I was giggling (very obnoxiously, might I add). From the very get go, this book sucked me into the story--almost as literally as the book in the book that eats the main characters, in fact! (Wow, that was a mouthful of a sentence! Let's not do that again.) The action begins almost immediately upon landing in Verona, though we quickly learn that things are not QUITE like the original play led us to believe. This retelling was super inventive, with some genius spins on the "tragedy" that kept this read perfectly acceptable for young hearts and minds. I really appreciated the amount of humor M.E. Castle put into this, while still maintaining the bigger plot points from Shakespeare's star-crossed tale of woe.

"Can't you let us enjoy this moment for, you know, a moment?!"

Sure. Just try not to think about really sharp, pointy swords.

"Great," Becca said as she carefully checked her backpack to make sure the book--the only ticket home--was still there. "That definitely won't make me think about swords."

Happy to help.

The morals and lessons woven throughout the journey--about bullying, and family, and self-love/self-acceptance, and so many other delicious things!--were well-handled and portrayed in a light that made them both entertainingly humorous and super easy to understand. This is such a great book to lead mid-grade readers to, both for the morals AND for the introduction to Shakespeare. While the prose is much less complex (and much easier to understand!) than Shakespeare's tragedy, the main story is still mostly there--just minus the actual TRAGEDY of the, uh, tragedy.

I had an absolute BLAST blasting my way through this retelling, and cannot wait to pick up the next book in this series (and YAY me, I already own it!) These characters are entertaining and set on a path of growth/acceptance; the prose is humorous and enlightening; and the new spins on an old tragedy both made this read unique and were laugh-out-loud hilarious. I definitely recommend this to lovers of middle-grade novels, those seeking a less intimidating introduction to The Bard, and readers who love humor and word play. Be careful when touching this book, Penguins; it just might eat you while your back is turned!

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Becca Deed and her best friend Kyle Word like to spend their free time writing and illustrating a comic book series. When she and her stepbrother Sam Danielson head off on some errands, including a quick trip to Kyle's, they stumble onto the Get Lost Book Club in which readers are devoured by a book, in this case William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and find themselves transported back in time to Verona where the original play is set. There, they land in the middle of a tomato-throwing, recipe-stealing war between two families, the Capulets and the Montagues. Now all they need to do is get Romeo and Juliet together so the story ends happily and they can return home with their dog Rufus. But Romeo pines for another girl, and Juliet develops a crush on Sam. As the (sometimes) helpful narrator offers suggestions, Becca and Sam figure out a way to work together and restore peace to the region. Making the feud between the two families involve pizza adds to the book's humor. While some scholars of the Bard may shake their heads at the liberties taken here, I was thoroughly amused at the characters' antics and how many of the scenes and lines from the original play that were inserted here. The author even briefly tackles the oft-denigrated Queen Mab scene with Queen Mab being his cat's name instead of the fairies' midwife. Much of this will pass right over the heads of any late elementary or intermediate school readers, but it just may prompt them to want to learn more and it certainly will remove some of the fear associated with reading Shakespeare's works. There are several illustrations, some double-page spreads, that allow readers to see what the characters look like. This is fun, irreverent stuff, and methinks good old Will or whoever wrote his plays would be totally amused and on board with this project.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly and cute for a younger audience.

[John Nondorf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda fun and always good to get kids interested in Shakespeare.