by Ross Montgomery
Illustrated by Mark Beech
Published by Barrington Stoke
This neat, entertaining “chapter book” for Key Stage 2 is, effectively, a commentary on The Tempest.
A class of children have been working on the play with a view to performing it at a festival in Italy. They’re full of both The Tempest and excitement. Then they get shipwrecked in the English Channel by a storm and end up on an Island where events more or less follow the plot of The Tempest.
There’s a monster they’re all afraid of and initially don’t believe in, but of course it’s real. They don’t initially know that other class mates and their teacher are elsewhere on the Island, until there’s a meeting which has a very familiar dynamic to anyone who knows the play. When they need dry clothes, they find the washed-up box which contains their Tempest costumes which, quite literally, adds to the drama.
It’s lightly done and I love the way Ross Montgomery uses bits of Shakespeare’s text – which of course the children he’s writing about already know. It would make a good introduction to The Tempest or a useful add-on for a group already working on the play.
Another title, Hurly Burly, which does something similar with Macbeth is, apparently on the way.
Review by Susan Elkin