I tend to keep half an eye out of “Young Adult” novels with a Shakespeare twist, and several references to Kissing Shakespeare popped up this weekend. My oldest daughter enjoyed books like The Shakespeare Stealer (which, I realize, I never reviewed here) so I scan the plot:
In this story we meet Miranda. The daughter of two famous actors with the New England Shakespeare Company, she finds herself beginning to despise acting.
Ok, so far so good. Shakespeare name, Shakespeare content.
After opening night of Taming of the Shrew, where she basically performs the lead role as a statue, a boy who’s a senor year transfer student from England that no one has really spoken to, comes up to her and tells Miranda she has to come with him. Apparently this Stephen Langford is from 1581 and he’s there to tell her that THE William Shakespeare is in danger.
Again, not a problem – the whole “young hero/heroine needs to travel in time to save a famous historic figure” is a common plot. A little confused about playing the lead in Shrew as a statue, though. Did they mean Winter’s Tale?
What does Stephen Langford want her to do? He wants Miranda to seduce Shakespeare so that the future bard will forget all about becoming a priest.
LALALALALA *hands over ears* LALLA I AM NOT LISTENING I CAN’T HEAR YOU LALALALALALALALALALA
I don’t know when I got old, but I don’t want to see the work “seduce” anywhere near the words “young adult”, thankyewverymuch.
🙂 All kidding aside, my daughter is 10 – I’m well aware that there’s an entire audience of later teens that can deal with such topics while still falling under the “young adult” category. I’m just not going to push it. In my house we’re still in the midst of an ongoing brainwashing experience, where every time we stumble across even the most innocent kissing scene my wife and I will screw up our faces and yell ‘EWWWWW! KISSING!’ so that this is the first thought in our daughter’s head when the subject comes up, for as long as possible. 😉
