Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	The Shakespeare Stealer
	Author:	Blackwood, Gary
	Date Published:	1998
	Genre:	Historical Fiction
	Grade Level:	6 - 9
	Booktalker:	Bonnie Phinney

Booktalk:
Widge is an orphan and like most orphans, he dreams of having a real family someday. When he is seven, he is apprenticed out to a Dr. Timothy Bright, a physician. Bright is a learned man who, though not affectionate toward his new charge, does give him a comfortable place to sleep and food to eat. And even more, he gives him the gift of literacy. Not only does Widge learn English and Latin, he learns a curious abbreviated language invented by his master called charactery - we might call it shorthand today! But it is this learning that gets Widge into trouble. When he is 14, Widge's fortunes change again. A black-bearded stranger comes to the apothecary (that's 16th century English for pharmacy) and seeing how adept Widge is with charactery, purchases him for 10 gold sovereigns. Widge has no choice but to follow him - he has no clue where he's going or why and it's a difficult journey with a stranger who is silent and foreboding. When they finally reach their destination - far south of his native Yorkshire - Widge finds, to his surprise, that his new master is not the frightening, black bearded stranger who brought him there, but a mild looking man named Simon Bass. Simon Bass has a very special, very dangerous, assignment for his new charge … He tells Widge to go to London, attend a performance of a new play entitled The Tragedy of Hamlet by the famous playwright, Shakespeare, copy it in Dr. Bright's charactery, and deliver it to his new master. Widge, of course, is dumbstruck. Ever since he learned to read, he has dreamed about seeing the great city of London. But why would his master want him to copy the play? It turns out that he owns a struggling theater company and he needs current material for his playhouse. Shakespeare is the best around. Stealing manuscripts was not uncommon at this time, apparently, and works were scrupulously guarded by the owners. So Bass desperately needs Widge to STEAL the play. Widge and the black-bearded stranger, Falconer, head to London. But this job is much more difficult than Widge or his master could have imagined. Not only are there too many words to transcribe, there are characters to keep straight, and ad-libs to reckon with. And worse yet, Widge finds himself quickly caught up in the action of the play and often forgets to write. He goes into the theater fearful of being discovered and punished for writing down the play and he leaves with a dread of being punished for NOT having written it down. He tells Falconer he has to go back and get what he missed the first time. But this time he is caught. He escapes, but in the melee, Widge discovers that his small, hand-held notebook on which the play was written has disappeared. He has to find a way into the playhouse again to get a copy of the play. But once inside, he is befriended by the players, who treat him as one of their own, not knowing his real motives. Widge is faced with a dilemma - does he copy or steal the play and betray his new friends; Or does he stay with the troupe, the closest thing he's ever had to a family, and betray his master? Until he decides, Widge must play the part of his life - and, in this case, the lines are not written by Shakespeare.