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Rating: 
Summary: A new look at Shakespeare
Review: A new and unusual look at "Did Shakespeare write it?" Interesting and appealing to teenagers from 9 to 90. Another triumph for this author.
Rating:
Summary: A Delightful Romp through Literary History
Review: Here is an engaging, entertaining, and indeed positively delightful romp through the underworld of the Elizabethan theatrical scene -- as witnessed through the eyes of an intellectually precocious thirteen-something (unlucky in love!-Yikes!) named Willow who suddenly finds herself teleported from 20th century Ontario into the grimy candlelight world of London in 1593 where she finds herself rooming with the -- allegedly -- great playwrite "Shakspere." Only the most dogmatic partisans of the by-now moribund official view of Shakespeare will be offended this linguistically precocious reconstruction of the "might have been" hypothesis of the Earl of Oxford's identity as the real Bard. Indeed Lynne Kositsky has an uncanny knack for anchoring her fictional narrative in detailed and singularly accurate memory for cultural nuance and historical incident. Kositsky also possesses a natural gift for the pulse of language. Her narrator speaks in an energetic and often captivating fusion of Canadian Valley Girl slang and Elizabethen vernacular, which is certain to capture the imagination of many young readers. Is this another J.K. Rowling in the making? Here's a taste: Bobby Goffe really hated me, that was for sure: he criticized and cuffed me every chance he got. Shakspere dissed me daily, perchance cos he'd been stuck with me, mayhap cos he feared I'd discovered his secret schemes. And I still needed to keep a sharp look out for that other gig, Beavis, Butthead, and Mystery Guy, at every turn. To cut a long story short, I felt threatened every step I took. At the house, at the Theatre, on the street, a mere whisper would twist my head around, a hint of a hubbub would set my heart to heaving. (p. 70) As the reader may detect, Ms. Kositsky's most formidable weapon, like that of her dark hero Edward Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, is a razor sharp wit, viz. her biting satirical invocation of the (historically real)duel between actor Gabriel Spencer and actor-playwright Ben Jonson, in which Willow, transporting mysterious packages between Vere and Shakspere, is revealed to be the precipitating cause of the duel: Galloping gobstoppers, what should I do now? Stand my ground till [Spenser] strangled me, or agree to what he wanted, and then get out while the going was good. I was too scared to make up my mind. He started shaking me again like I was a pair of maracas. And maybe there were two of me at that, cos I was starting to see everything double. "No, never," I cried at last. "I will never give you anything of Vere's. Do your worst!" I drooped over like a limp lily, and was about to throw up on the villain's boots, really making him mad, when Ben Jonson rushed into the Cathedral. He must have been behind us all the time. In a trice, he realized the mess I was in and shoved his bully-boy face into Spencer's, fixing him with his beery breath. "That's Shakspere's lad, Gabe. Put him down right now, right here, right this minute, before you do him a permanent disablement"...... (p. 102) The book can be recommended without reserve for all readers between the ages of eight and eighty who love the derring-do world which belongs to "Shakespeare" -- the world which harbored the great voyages of exploration which have made our modern life, for better or worse, what it now is. The author deserves congratulation if not some sort of medal; but one may be sure the further books by Ms. Kositsky are not far from publication.
Rating:
Summary: A Delightful Romp through Literary History
Review: Here is an engaging, entertaining, and indeed positively delightful romp through the underworld of the Elizabethan theatrical scene -- as witnessed through the eyes of an intellectually precocious thirteen-something (unlucky in love!-Yikes!) named Willow who suddenly finds herself teleported from 20th century Ontario into the grimy candlelight world of London in 1593 where she finds herself rooming with the -- allegedly -- great playwrite "Shakspere." Only the most dogmatic partisans of the by-now moribund official view of Shakespeare will be offended this linguistically precocious reconstruction of the "might have been" hypothesis of the Earl of Oxford's identity as the real Bard. Indeed Lynne Kositsky has an uncanny knack for anchoring her fictional narrative in detailed and singularly accurate memory for cultural nuance and historical incident. Kositsky also possesses a natural gift for the pulse of language. Her narrator speaks in an energetic and often captivating fusion of Canadian Valley Girl slang and Elizabethen vernacular, which is certain to capture the imagination of many young readers. Is this another J.K. Rowling in the making? Here's a taste: Bobby Goffe really hated me, that was for sure: he criticized and cuffed me every chance he got. Shakspere dissed me daily, perchance cos he'd been stuck with me, mayhap cos he feared I'd discovered his secret schemes. And I still needed to keep a sharp look out for that other gig, Beavis, Butthead, and Mystery Guy, at every turn. To cut a long story short, I felt threatened every step I took. At the house, at the Theatre, on the street, a mere whisper would twist my head around, a hint of a hubbub would set my heart to heaving. (p. 70) As the reader may detect, Ms. Kositsky's most formidable weapon, like that of her dark hero Edward Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, is a razor sharp wit, viz. her biting satirical invocation of the (historically real)duel between actor Gabriel Spencer and actor-playwright Ben Jonson, in which Willow, transporting mysterious packages between Vere and Shakspere, is revealed to be the precipitating cause of the duel: Galloping gobstoppers, what should I do now? Stand my ground till [Spenser] strangled me, or agree to what he wanted, and then get out while the going was good. I was too scared to make up my mind. He started shaking me again like I was a pair of maracas. And maybe there were two of me at that, cos I was starting to see everything double. "No, never," I cried at last. "I will never give you anything of Vere's. Do your worst!" I drooped over like a limp lily, and was about to throw up on the villain's boots, really making him mad, when Ben Jonson rushed into the Cathedral. He must have been behind us all the time. In a trice, he realized the mess I was in and shoved his bully-boy face into Spencer's, fixing him with his beery breath. "That's Shakspere's lad, Gabe. Put him down right now, right here, right this minute, before you do him a permanent disablement"...... (p. 102) The book can be recommended without reserve for all readers between the ages of eight and eighty who love the derring-do world which belongs to "Shakespeare" -- the world which harbored the great voyages of exploration which have made our modern life, for better or worse, what it now is. The author deserves congratulation if not some sort of medal; but one may be sure the further books by Ms. Kositsky are not far from publication.
Rating: 
Summary: A blast from the Elizabethan past.
Review: Kositsky plunges her heroine back into Elizabethan England for a wild, rollicking adventure with an acting company and a theater hanger-on named Will Shakspere, who seems to be taking credit for Shakespeare's plays. Young adults (and not so young) will relish her gross encounters with Elizabethan thugs and her winning ways with the acting company and Queen Elizabeth herself, who bestows an early version of the Academy Awards. Hard-core Stratfordians will object to Oxford as the playwright, but Kositsky's light, spoofing treatment, solidly grounded in the facts of the authorship controversy,easily carries the reader into her version of the world's biggest literary mystery. It's a blast from the past.
Rating: 
Summary: Very entertaining, but misleading on the authorship question
Review: Purely as a historical novel for young adults, this book is entertaining and funny. All the slang takes a little getting used to, but for the most part it's easy to follow. There's some gross-out humor which should appeal to younger readers (and to older readers who are into that kind of stuff, like me). The problem I have with the book is in its depiction of the Shakespeare authorship issue. The novel's heroine, Perin "Willow" Willoughby, is magically trasported back in time to 1595 London, where she meets William Shakespeare and his fellow actors. Shakespeare is depicted as a filthy, drunken fool, and Willow gradually begins to suspect that Shakespeare's plays are really being written by the mysterious Earl of Oxford who keeps showing up at the playhouse and having furtive meetings with Shakespeare. Now, granted, this is a novel, and as such the author has a lot of room for interpretation and speculation. But the depictions of both Shakespeare and Oxford in this book are caricatures based on highly biased Oxfordian sources, and have little to do with the historical record. Quite apart from his playwriting activities, Shakespeare's known circle of acquaintances, in both Stratford and London, was a cultured and literary one. And the documentary record shows that the Earl of Oxford, at the time when this novel depicts him furiously writing plays and attending the theater, was actually writing long and tedious letters to Lord Burghley, trying to get the royal monopoly on tin mining. The evidence that William Shakespeare wrote the plays published under his name is very strong, stronger than the comparable evidence for most other playwrights of the time. While Oxford is known to have written at least one comedy (now lost), and kept a minor company of players, the evidence that he had anything to do with Shakespeare's plays is nil. The "evidence" which Oxfordians present for their beliefs, primarily based on imagined parallels between the plays and Oxford's life story, is essentially worthless as evidence of anything. This book is an entertaining piece of fiction, but nobody should take it as representing anything close to historical fact. Anyone wishing to know more about the factual and logical distortions used by Oxfordians should visit the Shakespeare Authorship Page on the web. Dave Kathman djk1@ix.netcom.com
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining, but misleading on the authorship question
Review: Purely as a historical novel for young adults, this book is entertaining and funny. All the slang takes a little getting used to, but for the most part it's easy to follow. There's some gross-out humor which should appeal to younger readers (and to older readers who are into that kind of stuff, like me). The problem I have with the book is in its depiction of the Shakespeare authorship issue. The novel's heroine, Perin "Willow" Willoughby, is magically trasported back in time to 1595 London, where she meets William Shakespeare and his fellow actors. Shakespeare is depicted as a filthy, drunken fool, and Willow gradually begins to suspect that Shakespeare's plays are really being written by the mysterious Earl of Oxford who keeps showing up at the playhouse and having furtive meetings with Shakespeare. Now, granted, this is a novel, and as such the author has a lot of room for interpretation and speculation. But the depictions of both Shakespeare and Oxford in this book are caricatures based on highly biased Oxfordian sources, and have little to do with the historical record. Quite apart from his playwriting activities, Shakespeare's known circle of acquaintances, in both Stratford and London, was a cultured and literary one. And the documentary record shows that the Earl of Oxford, at the time when this novel depicts him furiously writing plays and attending the theater, was actually writing long and tedious letters to Lord Burghley, trying to get the royal monopoly on tin mining. The evidence that William Shakespeare wrote the plays published under his name is very strong, stronger than the comparable evidence for most other playwrights of the time. While Oxford is known to have written at least one comedy (now lost), and kept a minor company of players, the evidence that he had anything to do with Shakespeare's plays is nil. The "evidence" which Oxfordians present for their beliefs, primarily based on imagined parallels between the plays and Oxford's life story, is essentially worthless as evidence of anything. This book is an entertaining piece of fiction, but nobody should take it as representing anything close to historical fact. Anyone wishing to know more about the factual and logical distortions used by Oxfordians should visit the Shakespeare Authorship Page on the web. Dave Kathman djk1@ix.netcom.com
Rating:
Summary: Useful antidote
Review: The ONLY reason the orthodox Stratfordian view of the authorship of Shakespeare's works has managed to survive is that it is taught to the young with no information about its rickety foundation, or about the persuasiveness of the Oxford alternative. Books like this one may hasten the day when the bizarre Stratford myth collapses of its own weight. An admirable corrective, and a fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Thought-Provoking
Review: There are few books out there that deal with the controversy over the true authorship of Shakespeare's plays, let alone one for young adults. Kositsky had to do a lot of research for this one, and produced a novel that is historically authentic and has a slapstick sense of humor.
Rating:
Summary: Thought-Provoking
Review: There are few books out there that deal with the controversy over the true authorship of Shakespeare's plays, let alone one for young adults. Kositsky had to do a lot of research for this one, and produced a novel that is historically authentic and has a slapstick sense of humor.
Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare Gets a Life!
Review: This is a great book to get hooked on the greatestliterarywhodunit in history! Who is "The Man of theMillenium"? Is it Will, the guy from Stratford, or Edward de Vere, one of the great Rennaisance minds of the Court of Elizabeth?Follow the intrepid Canadian girl, Willow, who figures it out. I gave my copy to the actor, Michael York, who said that it kept him up one night until he finished it. So this book is not just for Willow-agers, but for everyone who gets intrigued that we might be following the wrong guy to the top of the literary heap!
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