Gary BlackwoodRezensionen

A quick YA read that reminded me of Shakespeare in Love. It would be a great introduction to Shakespeare for a middle school kid. Widge is an orphan who has yet to find a kind family. He is tasked with stealing a script of Hamlet and discovers a love of acting instead. There’s a quick pace with a few twists and it’s an easy read. I’d recommend for 5th or 6th grade.½

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The premise of the book was interesting enough for me to request it. However, the constant karate references just broke my interest. It also didn't seem to really fit the young adult category. The story within a story was somewhat intriguing and I found the historical detail by the author to be well done. All in all, it's only an 'okay' read.½

I found “The Devil to Pay” entertaining and engaging, although not very complex. But that’s OK, it kept my interest, had an exciting plot development, believable characters and offered me a nostalgic remembrance of a time period I grew up in. The author did a good job of capturing the turbulent Vietnam period and the confusing emotions arising from a government and industry becoming increasingly untrustworthy. The narrator sometimes slips between past and present tense but this should be blamed on the editor. I enjoyed the story within a story the journal provided and found it informative and found the story thought provoking. The author weaves romance, humor, action and mystery into a compelling summer read.

I was sadly mistaken when requesting this book for early review. Contrary to what I was lead to expect 'the Devil to Pay' is a (slightly-older-than) 'young adult' book. The premisse sounded intriguing but the book quickly fell flat under the excessive details of code breaking and of all things 'karate'. Neither the book, the characters nor the writing could captivate me.½

A unique story that shows what could have happened if only a few things changed during the American Revolutionary War. The loss of a few key figures could have changed the entire course of history. Buckle up for a roller coaster experience with the main character as you go from hating him to feeling sympathetic at the end.

A very satisfying academic thriller. The well-detailed historical setting highlights an American college campus during the protests over the war in Viet Nam. The protagonist is hunting down and deciphering a coded Portuguese manuscript for his MA thesis. Meanwhile, he’s negotiating his social network--at school, with friends from home, and in his karate classes. Eventually he must deal with the fraught world of academic publishing as well as with the menacing actions of representatives from Big Pharma.

Adventure in Elizabethan England! Shakespeare! The Globe!
SPL Global Reading Challenge 2016

This is an exciting and twisty story about a scrappy orphan boy called "Widge" who gets the job of stealing Mr. Shakespeare's newest play.

There are so many surprising twists about characters that it's hard to write about the book without giving things away! Lots of action in this tale of fencing, boats shooting the bridge, and crossing country by night. Costume props like sheep's bladders full of blood take care of the special effects and a secret kind of writing makes the theft of a play possible.

The famous Globe theater comes to life in this winning story. Widge learns all kinds of new skills and puts them to use, while making new friends, even when he has to keep some big secrets. Enjoyable read!

A decent, informative book - but I'm still scratching my head over why the cover used an image of Vlad Țepeș (aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula) when there is no mention of vampires in the book at all. That alone is misleading, but factored in with pertinent bits of the legends/folklore being left out of certain sections, I'm forced to say this book was only "okay."

To me it is a crime when an intelligent idea fails to reach it's potential. Thus, if I were the judge, and (at the moment) I am, this book would be condemned for 10-20 years in solitary. Such a promising idea wasted in trivial side-line plots, cement-like characters and less-than-true return appearances from the original. I wanted it to succeed, but it didn't.

Interesting take, but hard to grasp.

In 1853 ex-police Inspector Charley Field is now a private inquiry agent at the age of 48, and working for himself. Apart from having a list of criminals he wishes to catch for their past deeds, the death, or as he sees it, the murder of a prostitute takes up most of his time. But it is not as straightforward as he believes, while also investigating other cases as his agency work takes off.
A good cast of characters setting up the series, with some decent crimes to solves. All in all an interesting read.
A NetGalley Book

Inter-continental car race

This quick and easy first person coming of age (almost?) story was almost fun, a little bit Oliver Twist-ish, and very moralizing. The interesting flip-side to the benign neglect of his orphanage was the recurring theme of right-from-wrong having been whatever filled one's belly, and learning how or why loyalty and not lying were good things. And not stealing. Felt a bit judgmental without trying to look judgmental, and the lucky orphan finds family story felt a bit off to me, for some reason. Maybe just my cynical anger; sorry.

This one has been recommended to me in a few places, so when I saw it at my local library sale, I snatched it up immediately. Other than the leading title, I had no idea what the book was about, so it was a nice little mystery finding out. Plus, my copy has no details on the back page, where summaries and reviews can often give too much away, so that was nice.

I find it interesting that this and the movie Shakespeare in Love were both released in 1998, considering some of the similarities between them, including {SPOILER}. Those of you who know the book and the movie know exactly what I'm talking about. Plus, I like how that particular twist was foreshadowed just enough so that you were gently guided without it being overly obvious, while the reveal at the end comes almost completely out of nowhere (at least, it did for me until I thought about earlier moments).

Being on a Shakespeare kick of late, this one fit right in with my reading, and it's well worth it if you're a fan of Shakespeare, Elizabethan history, or thrilling young adult mystery tales.

From Publishers Weekly

In this adventurous, if somewhat unrealistic, novel, Blackwood (The Shakespeare Stealer) imagines what would have happened if the Americans lost the Revolutionary War. In 1777 (called the Year of the Hangman "because the three sevens in the date resembled the miniature gallows" and because of all the British traitors hanged), spoiled 15-year-old Creighton is taken from London by force, and sent to the Colonies to live with his uncle. But when Creighton accompanies his uncle, an unkind Englishman named Colonel Gower, to a new post in West Florida, their boat is seized by patriot privateers, led by the infamous Benedict Arnold. They bring the prisoners to the Spanish territory of New Orleans and imprison Gower, but take Creighton to live with Benjamin Franklin. Creighton agrees to spy for Gower, discovering that Franklin publishes a revolutionary paper, but his conscience begins to bother him. Not only are Franklin and his friends kind to Creighton but the lines between what is "good or bad, right or wrong" blur. A few characters seem stilted, such as Sophie, a hot-headed, French-speaking maid, and Peter, a warmhearted giant. But history buffs will recognize some clever dialogue ("It's a far more difficult thing to make up your own mind about what's right and act accordingly," Arnold tells Creighton) and the hero struggles with compelling questions, such as the meaning of honor and the value of war. Jail escapes, duels, code-breaking and more keep the story moving.

This book covers the Great Race and the historical race of 1908. The book covers the different automobiles used. It is also a great tool for children to see how far cars have advanced in the last 100 years.

In Philadelphia in 1835, Rufus, a twelve-year-old chess prodigy, is recruited by a shady showman to secretly operate a mechanical chess player called the Turk. Well Rufus loves to play chess and he needs a job, so why not. Rufus has to bend his frail body inside the machine to operate the mechanical arm. This is done by the light of a candle where he is breathing air that is damaging to his lungs. The showman treats Rufus very badly and doesn't pay him until Rufus finally refuses to operate the Turk until he does. There are a lot of curious and most intriguing characters that appear in the book and all come together in the end. Excellent read!

Historical fiction for the youngest independent readers. The author's note explains some of the old ways to accomplish things like making butter etc. And 'The Any-Way Man' is funny, as he helps 'The Just-So Woman' learn that it's ok to unbend a bit.

This book would be great for a lesson on what life was like in the early 1900's and how far cars have come along. It could also be used for talking about the black and white pictures in the book. It could also be used for talking about comparing and contrasting the people who went around the world or talking about their viewpoints.

A touch of mystery, a touch of drama, and a touch of history. I rather enjoyed this middle-grade novel. With a fair amount of info on Shakespeare's London (largely on places that still exist and thus appear on modern maps), on English dialect, on the lives of orphans and apprentices, and on theatre in Shakespeare's time--this book reads as something a 5th-8th grader would enjoy. My son read it over the summer as an incoming 7th grader (it was a choice on the summer reading list) and he did not enjoy it :(

London, England. Widge is an orphan who’s been apprenticed to a master who trains him to use a special shorthand for transcription of his speeches. Widge is sold to another man and it turns out his duty is to use the shorthand to take down the play of Hamlet as it’s being performed in Globe Theater so his new master’s theater group can perform it and make money. But Widge gets so caught up in the play he misses several lines. On a second attempt, he loses the notebook, and fearing the wrath of his master’s assistant, joins the Globe as an apprentice and soon comes to enjoy and appreciate the theater and the family of fellow actors.

This is a very nice young adult read about honesty and trust, loyalty and friendship, family and home. Widge is plucked from the orphanage at age seven and apprenticed to Dr Bright – a parson and apothecary. His life there is better than at the orphanage, but mostly that of a servant/apprentice. Still, he learns to read and write in English and Latin, and learns basic medicine. He is also taught a form of “charactery” (i.e. stenography) that Dr Bright has invented, and with that skill Widge is sent to neighboring parishes to record those sermons. When he is 14, however, a stranger appears holding one of Dr Bright’s pamphlets touting the charactery system. He “buys” Widge from Dr Bright and takes him to Leicester where, Widge learns, he is expected to “steal” a play for the master to perform. And this is where things get complicated and Widge’s life takes yet another turn.

I like the way Widge is written. He’s conflicted, as a young teen with little nurturing at this point in his life would be. He keeps to himself, having learned some basic “street sense” and survival techniques from his years in the orphanage and under Dr Bright’s tutelage. It’s hard for him to trust, and he doesn’t really understand friendship, so he’s understandably wary when other young people try to befriend him and seek his confidences. There’s a small subplot that reminded me of the movie Shakespeare in Love, which was released the same year this book was published. However, there’s enough swordplay and danger to keep young boys interested, despite the “old” English style of writing.

I’d read more of this series.

Alternative Revolutionary way story, not bad