Shakespeare in Teen Fiction

To read or not to read... These books include characters from Shakespeare's plays, fictional accounts of his family and life, and fiction based on the plots of his plays, only with a twist!

This booklist was contributed by Appleton Public Library Reference and Information Services Staff, 04/08 

• The adventures of Blue Avenger : a novel by Norma Howe (1999)
On his sixteenth birthday, still trying to cope with the unexpected death of his father, David Schumacher decides--or does he--to change his name to Blue Avenger, hoping to find a way to make a difference in his Oakland neighborhood and in the world.
• Black swan by Farrukh Dhondy (1993)
While taking care of an elderly man, Rose realizes that they are being watched, and becomes caught up in a mystery going back to Elizabethan England involving Shakespeare, Marlowe, and an extraordinary black slave.
• Blue Avenger cracks the code by Norma Howe (2000)
In his new identity as Blue Avenger, sixteen-year-old David visits Venice, Italy, and continues to pursue various crusades, including trying to solve the mystery of who really wrote Shakespeare's works.
• Dating Hamlet : Ophelia's story by Lisa Fiedler (2002)
In a story based on the Shakespeare play, Ophelia describes her relationship with Hamlet, learns the truth about her own father, and recounts the complicated events following the murder of Hamlet's father.
• Enter three witches by Kate Gilmore (1990)
Bren is fearful of having the girl of his dreams meet his family of witches, but after a school production of Macbeth which is attended by his family who cause startling effects, he realizes a meeting has already taken place.
• Enter three witches : a story of Macbeth by Caroline B. Cooney (2007)
Lady Mary's life is forever changed when her father, Lord Cawdor, betrays the Scottish king and is hanged as a traitor. Now a ward of Lord and Lady Macbeth, she's trapped in a castle with a power-hungry couple who will do anything to get what they want in this retelling of Shakespeare's tragedy.
• Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman (2006)
Julie and Ashleigh, high school sophomores and Jane Austen fans, seem to fall for the same Mr. Darcy-like boy and struggle to hide their true feelings from one another while rehearsing for a school musical.
• The flip side by Andrew Matthews (2003)
Robert, a British fifteen-year-old, is confused when he plays the part of Rosalind while studying Shakespeare in school and discovers parts of his personality that he did not know existed.
• King of shadows by Susan Cooper (2000)
While in London as part of an all-boy acting company preparing to perform in a replica of the famous Globe Theatre, Nat Field suddenly finds himself transported back to 1599 and performing in the original theater under the tutelage of Shakespeare himself.
• Loving Will Shakespeare by Carolyn Meyer (2006)
In Stratford-upon-Avon in the sixteenth century, Anne Hathaway suffers her stepmother's cruelty and yearns for love and escape, finally finding it in the arms of a boy she has grown up with, William Shakespeare.
• Ophelia : a novel by Lisa Klein (2006)
In a story based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia tells of her life in the court at Elsinore, her love for Prince Hamlet, and her escape from the violence in Denmark.
• Othello : a novel by Julius Lester (1995)
A prose retelling of Shakespeare's play in which a jealous general is duped into thinking that his wife has been unfaithful, with tragic consequences.
• The playmaker by J.B. Cheaney (2000)
While working as an apprentice in a London theater company in 1597, fourteen-year-old Richard uncovers a mystery involving the disappearance of his father and a traitorous plot to overthow Queen Elizabeth.
• Romeo's ex : Rosaline's story by Lisa Fiedler (2006)
In a story based on the Shakespeare play, sixteen-year-old Roseline, who is studying to be a healer, becomes romantically entangled with the Montague family even as her beloved young cousin, Juliet Capulet, defies the family feud to secretly marry Romeo.
• Romiette and Julio by Sharon M. Draper (1999)
Romiette, an African-American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, discover that they attend the same high school after falling in love on the Internet, but are harrassed by a gang whose members object to their interracial dating.
• The Shakespeare stealer by Gary L. Blackwood (1998)
Sequel: Shakespeare's scribe. A young orphan boy is ordered by his master to infiltrate Shakespeare's acting troupe in order to steal the script of "Hamlet," but he discovers instead the meaning of friendship and loyalty.
• Shakespeare's daughter by Peter Hassinger (2004)
Susanna Shakespeare yearns to travel to London like her father, to experience the world of actors and poets and to follow her own dream of singing, a path followed only by men.
• Shakespeare's scribe by Gary L. Blackwood (2000)
Sequel to: The Shakespeare stealer. In plague-ridden 1602 England, a fifteen-year-old orphan boy, who has become an apprentice actor, goes on the road with Shakespeare's troupe, and finds out more about his parents along the way.
• Something rotten : a Horatio Wilkes mystery by Alan Gratz (2007)
In a contemporary story based on Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, Horatio Wilkes seeks to solve the murder of his friend Hamilton Prince's father in Denmark, Tennessee.
• Swan Town : the secret journal of Susanna Shakespeare by Michael J. Ortiz (2006)
Restricted by the authorities from practicing Catholicism and forbidden by her parents from seeing a Puritan boy, Susanna, the daughter of William Shakespeare, vents her anger by writing in a journal and composing a play.
• The sweet, terrible, glorious year I truly, completely lost it by Lisa Shanahan (2007)
Fourteen-year-old Gemma Stone struggles to understand her shifting emotions as her older sister plans her wedding, she overcomes her nerves and tries out for the school play, and she gets to know one of the most notorious boys in her class.
• This must be love by Tui Sutherland (2004)
Two good friends tell of strange occurrences between themselves and the boys they like during a high school production of "Romeo and Juliet," which are reminiscent of the magical world of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
• The true prince by J.B. Cheaney (2002)
Newly apprenticed to Shakespeare's theater company, Richard and Kit are drawn into a series of crimes involving the members of Queen Elizabeth's court.
• The Wednesday wars by Gary D. Schmidt (2007)
During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.
• William Shakespeare's Macbeth : the graphic novel by Arthur Byron Cover (2005)
A graphic novel adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy about a Scottish nobleman's lust for power in easy-to-understand language, and includes information on the playwright and the Globe Theater.