Literature Featuring Theatre

Aliki. William Shakespeare and the Globe. Harper Collins. 1999. RL 4.8 Tells the story of Shakespeare and the Globe theatre as well as the story of Sam Wanamaker whose ambition was to rebuild the Globe. The author/illustrator pays meticulous attention to illustrative detail. Short quotations from Shakespeare appear throughout the book. Aliki. A Play’s the Thing. HarperCollins. 2005. IL K-3 RL 1.9 José is reluctant to take part in a production of Mary Had a Little Lamb, but the confidence of his teacher, the team spirit of his classmates, and the response of the audience, including his proud mother, change his attitude. The story is told mostly through speech bubbles and tidy panel watercolor illustrations. Allison, Amy. Shakespeare’s Globe. Lucent Books. 1999. IL 5-8 RL 8.0 Tells the history of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, including its construction, the plays that were performed there, its financial aspects, and the reconstruction in 1995. This is an engaging read and a valuable resource for Shakespeare buffs and budding architects. Amendola, Dana. A Day at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Disney. 2004. IL 5-8 Photographs and text provide a behind-the-scenes look at the day-to-day activities that take place at Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre. It covers a day in the life of Disney's The Lion King, the long-running Broadway musical. The volume is as much a tribute to the renovated New Amsterdam Theatre, the one-time home of The Ziegfield Follies, as it is a celebration of stagehands, technicians, and performers working six days a week to put on eight shows. Best, Cari. Shrinking Violet. Farrar, Straus, Giroux. 2001. IL K-3 RL 3.6 Violet, who is very shy and hates for anyone to look at her in school, finally comes out of her shell when she is cast as Lady Space in a play about the solar system and saves the production from disaster. The illustrations are done using wacky angles and proportions, rich colors, and slightly nostalgic details, and serve to extend the story's drama and warmth. Blackwood, Gary L. Shakespear’s Spy. Puffin. 2005. IL 5-8 Sequel toThe Shakespeare Stealer (Dutton 1999) and Shakespear’s Scribe (Puffin 2000). In plague-ridden 1602 England, Widge, an orphan boy who has become an apprentice actor, begins some investigative snooping when several thefts occur backstage. The novel, with its intrigues, romances, and plagues includes an appended note in which Blackwood separates fact from fiction. Cecil, Randy. Maestro Von Haughty Presents One dark and Dreadful Night: a Wayward Orphans Production Holt. 2004. IL K-3 Maestro Von Haught wants to present three thrilling tales of terror and misfortune, but members of the Wayward Orphans Theatre make some very silly changes to the costumes and script. This is great read-aloud fun for junior thespians with a reminder that what seems scary can always be undercut with a heavy dose of humor.

SCUSD Library Services Martha Rowland, Coordinator 10/25/2005 - 1 - Literature Featuring Theatre

Cheaney, J.B. The True Prince. Knopf. 2002. IL 6-8 RL 6.1 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. This is an historical thriller that is a sequel to The Playmaker (2000). Intrigues include actors murdered, and the loss of the theatre. The historical period is re-created with excellent detail and research. Conford, Ellen. Annabelle the Actress Starring in Camping it Up, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004. IL 3-6 RL 4.7 Annabel dreams of becoming a famous actress, so when the camp holds auditions for the yearly play, Annabel tries out for a big part, but she soon learns there is more to life than fame and fortune. Cooper, Susan. King of Shadows. Margaret K. McElderry Books. 1999. RL 7.0 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. Creech, Sharon Replay. HarperCollins. 2005. RL 5.1 IL 3-6 While preparing for a role in the school play, twelve-year-old Leo finds an autobiography that his father wrote as a teenager and ponders the ways people change. Includes the text for the play, Rumpopo's Porch. The author weaves together dreams, memories and minor crises that occur at home and onstage, to create images and voices that celebrate both the imagination and family. Curry, Jane Louise. Black Canary. Simon & Schuster. 2005. IL 5-8 RL 3.9 As the child of two musicians, twelve-year-old James has no interest in music until he discovers a portal to seventeenth-century London in his uncle's basement. He goes back in time and finds himself in Elizabethan London and is recruited to a prestigious group of players. Deary, Terry. The Actor, the Rebel, and the Wrinkled Queen. Picture Window. 2005. RL 2.0 A young actor at the Globe Theatre must defend his master when Queen Elizabeth suspects that Shakespeare tried to help the Earl of Essex overthrow her. This is a title in a new series of easy chapter books called Read It! Chapter Books: Historical Tales that are irreverent and humorous. These titles will help to extend reading skills and build confidence. Dunleavy, Deborah. The Jumbo Book of Drama. Kids Can Press, 2000. IL 5.6 A guide to drama for children, featuring activities and ideas designed to help young people learn dramatic movement and voice, lighting, sound effects, costumes, and set design. The engaging narrative is interspersed with attractive, full-color drawings that clearly illustrate the text.

SCUSD Library Services Martha Rowland, Coordinator 10/25/2005 - 2 - Literature Featuring Theatre

Elgin, Kathy. Theater and Entertainment (Changing Times). Compass Point Books. 2005. IL 5-8 Examines the theater and entertainment during the European Renaissance period and includes illustrated photographs and drawings describing how theaters were organized, Elizabethan and Shakespearean plays, other famous playwrights and actors, and staging and costumes. This title will provide basic background information. Fleischman, Paul. Seek. Simon Pulse. 2001. IL YA Rob Radkovitz, a high school senior, is assigned to write his autobiography. He chooses to record it as an audio play, incorporating the sounds of his family, his home, and interweaves it with a sound recording of his long-lost father's old radio show, the only thing Rob has to remember his him by. Missing his father, Rob tunes in to radio stations across the country, searching for the voice on the old recording. Fleischman, Paul. Zap: a Play. Candlewick. 2005 IL YA Fleischman has written a new play that's really seven plays in one, that includes parodies of Chekhov, Tennessee Williams, Samuel Beckett, Neil Simon, and Agatha Christie. A snippet of each play is performed before being zapped by remote control to bring on the next. High-school theater departments willing to experiment with something new might try this as an alternative to the standard fare. Hoeye, Michael. No Time Like Show Time. Putnam. 2004. IL 5-8 This is the third title featuring watchmaker-mouse Hermux Tantamoq. The first two are Time Stops for No Mouse and The Sands of Time. This time, Hermux enters the exciting and somewhat shady world of show business to investigate a mysterious blackmailer at the Varmint Theater. Hoobler, Dorothy and Tom. The First Decade: Curtain Going Up. Millbrook. 2000. RL 4.2 In the early years of the 20th Century, Peggy and her cousins experience the excitement of belonging to a family of famous actors as they prepare to open a new theater with a family production of an original play. Horowitz, Anthony. The Devil and His Boy. Philomel. 2000. RL 5.3 Set in Elizabethan England, thirteen year-old Tom travels through the English countryside to London, where he falls in with a troupe of actors and finds himself in great danger from several sources. This is a rollicking good tale that is mostly based on historical fact, or at least historical rumor. Jennings, Coleman A., Editor. Theatre for Young Audiences: 20 Great Plays for Children. St. Martin’s Press. 1998. RL 7.2 A collection of plays, many of which are based on favorite children’s tales, including such titles as: Charlotte’s Web, Really Rosie, Wiley and the Hairy Man, Wise Men of Chelm, and The Crane Wife.

SCUSD Library Services Martha Rowland, Coordinator 10/25/2005 - 3 - Literature Featuring Theatre

Karr, Kathleen. Gilbert and Sullivan Set Me Free. Hyperion. 2003. RL 6.3 Libby Dodge, the youngest inmate at Sherborn Women’s Prison in Massachusetts in the early 1900’s becomes a member of the prison choir and participates in the production of the operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Based on a true event. Korman, Gordon. No More Dead Dogs. Hyperion. 2000. RL 5.3 Eighth-grade football hero Wallace Wallace is sentenced to detention attending rehearsals of the school play where, in spite of himself, he becomes wrapped up in the production and begins to suggest changes that improve not only the play but his life as well. Kushner, Tony. The Art of Maurice Sendak. Abrams. 2003. IL YA, Adult This is a chronicle of the life and works of author/illustrator Maurice Sendak presenting interviews, excerpts from his journals, and artwork from his projects for children and adults, particularly his work in the theater. Lester, Julius. Day of Tears. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion. 2005. IL 6-9 RL 3.6 Presents an historical fiction written in first-person format that follows Emma, the slave of Pierce Butler, through a series of events in her life as her master hosts the largest slave auction in American history in Savannah, Georgia in 1859 in order to pay off his mounting gambling debts. Love, Ann D. The Puppeteer’s Apprentice. M.K. McElderry Books. 2003. A medieval orphan girl called Mouse gains the courage she needs to follow her dreams of becoming a puppeteer's apprentice. Included is a source bibliography and an author's note discussing the history of puppetry from ancient Egypt through the Middle Ages to the present. Millman, Issac. Moses Sees a Play. Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. IL K-3 RL 4.4 Moses and his classmates, who are deaf or hard of hearing, attend a play at their school, presented by the Little Theatre of the Deaf. At the performance, Moses makes a new friend from another class, a boy who does not yet speak English. Diagrams of American Sign Language are blended into the story. Bright artwork accompanies the story. Morley, Jacqueline. A Shakespearean Theater. P. Bedrick. 2003. RL 6.7 Large, technically detailed cutaway illustrations are combined with smaller inset art and text to describe the Globe Theatre and the actors who performed Shakespeare’s plays there. Patterson, Nancy Ruth. A Simple Gift, Farrar, Straus, Giroux. 2003. RL 4.9 A small-town community theater production based on one of her mother's books brings Carrie a glimpse of her mother's past and a new understanding of giving to others. Good characterizations and a well-developed plot make this an enjoyable read

SCUSD Library Services Martha Rowland, Coordinator 10/25/2005 - 4 - Literature Featuring Theatre

Rogers, Gregory. The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard. Roaring Book Press. 2004 IL K-3 Presents a wordless story in which a young boy chases his soccer ball into an abandoned theater and is suddenly transported to the stage of the Globe Theater, inspiring the ire of William Shakespeare who pursues the lad through London and back into his own time. Schulman, Mark. Stella the Star. Walker. 2004. IL Pre K-2 RL 2.2 Stella's parents are very proud when they learn that she will be the "star" in her school play. But when Stella comes onstage, she is the star only in the sense that she is portraying a five-pointed one, but her parents are proud anyway. Sheldon, Dyan. Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Candlewick. 1999. IL YA In her first year at a suburban New Jersey high school, Mary Elizabeth Cep, who now calls herself "Lola," sets her sights on the lead in the annual drama production, and finds herself in conflict with the school’s reining drama queen. Smith, Bob. Hamlet’s Dresser: a Memoir. Scribner. 2002. IL Young Adult Bob Smith recounts how his life has been shaped by the poetry and prose of William Shakespeare, discussing how he found comfort in Shakespeare's plays when he was a child and how he turned his love of Shakespeare's writing into a lifelong career. Tiffany, Grace. Ariel. HarperCollins. 2005. IL 9-12 Contains a retelling of William Shakespeare's The Tempest from the point of view of Ariel, the mischievous air spirit. The author brings the characters from The Tempest and provides background as to how they get to the point where readers find them in the play. This is a witty tale that presents the bustle of Shakespeare’s London as seen through the eyes of the heroine. A vivid introduction to the Elizabethan theatre. Thoms, Annie, ed. With Their Eyes: September 11th : the View From a High School at Ground Zero. Harper Tempest. 2002. IL 9-12 Presents the script of a play written by students at New York's Stuyvesant High School, presented in a series of monologues based on interviews with students on their experiences and feelings about the attack on the World Trade Center, visible from the school, and its aftermath. Tolan, Stephanie S. Surviving the Applewhites. HarperCollins. 2002. IL 5-8 RL 5.7 After having been kicked out of every school he has attended, Jake Semple is sent to a creative arts school run by a free-wheeling family of artists and writers, is cast in a production of The Sound of Music and in the process learns he has special gifts. Weston, Martha. Act I, Act II, Act Normal. Roaring Book Press. 2003. RL 4.4 Topher Blakely gets the lead in the 8th Grade play, a musical adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin. Although he loves being on stage, he's got plenty of headaches including the class bully picking on him, and his beloved cat dying, all of which teach him a lot about compassion, friendship, and life.

SCUSD Library Services Martha Rowland, Coordinator 10/25/2005 - 5 - Literature Featuring Theatre

Williams, Marcia. More Tales from Shakespeare: Seven Plays. Candlewick. 2005 RL 5.3 Shakespeare's best-known plays are presented in a comic book format with panels to represent the stage. The plays presented are As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard III, Twelfth Night, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, and Much Ado About Nothing. Also Tales from Shakespeare, Candlewick, 1998.

SCUSD Library Services Martha Rowland, Coordinator 10/25/2005 - 6 -