Shakespearean Fiction (YA/Teen MG)
Explore captivating Shakespearean fiction for teens and middle graders! Discover YA books inspired by the Bard’s timeless tales—perfect for young readers who love drama, romance, and adventure.
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Lady Macbeth's Daughter
by Lisa Klein
The daughter Macbeth might have had, if Shakespeare had thought to create her... Albia has grown up with no knowledge of her mother of her father, the powerful Macbeth. Instead she knows the dark lure of the Wychelm Wood and the moors, where she's been raised by three strange sisters. It's only when the ambitious Macbeth seeks out the sisters to foretell his fate that Albia's life becomes tangled with the man who leaves nothing but bloodshed in his wake. She even falls in love with Fleance, Macbeth's rival for the throne. Yet when Albia learns that she has the second sight, she must decide whether to ignore the terrible future she foresees—or to change it. Will she be able to save the man she loves from her murderous father? And can she forgive her parents their wrongs, or must she destroy them to save Scotland from tyranny? In her highly anticipated follow-up to Ophelia, Lisa Klein delivers a powerful reimagining of Shakespeare's Macbeth, featuring a young woman so seamlessly drawn it seems impossible she was not part of the Bard's original play.
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Saving Juliet
by Suzanne Selfors
Manhattan meets Verona in this time-bending twist on Shakespeare. When Mimi is magically thrust into the middle of Shakespeare's Verona, she must find a way to help Juliet fight for her future happiness.
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The Shakespeare Stealer
by Gary Blackwood
A delightful adveture full of humor and heart set in Elizabethan England! Widge is an orphan with a rare talent for shorthand. His fearsome master has just one demand: steal Shakespeare's play "Hamlet"--or else. Widge has no choice but to follow orders, so he works his way into the heart of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare's players perform. As full of twists and turns as a London alleyway, this entertaining novel is rich in period details, colorful characters, villainy, and drama. * "A fast-moving historical novel that introduces an important era with casual familiarity." --School Library Journal, starred review "Readers will find much to like in Widge, and plenty to enjoy in this gleeful romp through olde England" --Kirkus Reviews "Excels in the lively depictions of Elizabethan stagecraft and street life." --Publishers Weekly An ALA Notable Book
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The Fool's Girl
by Celia Rees
Violetta and Feste have come to London to rescue a holy relic taken from a church in Illyria by the evil Malvolio, and once there, they tell the story of their adventures to playwright William Shakespeare, who turns it into a play.
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Swan Town
by Michael J. Ortiz
The witty and engaging diary of Susanna Shakespeare, the young daughter of William Shakespeare, from a first–time author. Thirteen–year–old Susanna Shakespeare longs for something exciting to happen in her boring village of Stratford, England. Her father, Will, is always off in London, busily working on new plays, and Susanna yearns to be a part of that world. When Susanna's uncle gets himself in trouble with the Master of Revels, and Susanna is whisked off to London to help, the stage is set for adventure...and romance. Told in a diary format with Susanna's humorous, witty perspective of late–sixteenth–century Elizabethan England, this extensively researched debut novel offers an unconventional glimpse into the life of the famed Bard's family.
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Ariel
by Grace Tiffany
Ariel is beautiful and magical, a creator of dreams and of mischief. Sprung from the mind of a dazed sailor shipwrecked in the Bermuda Triangle, she rules half of her enchanted isle, dreaming of the savior from the east who will help her conquer all. When Prospero, a lost mariner, appears on the beach, his young daughter, Miranda, in tow, Ariel entices him with her visions of conquest. Together, she promises, they will defeat the mysterious tribe whose drums beat beyond the island's rain forest. The homesick Prospero struggles to resist Ariel's charms, but he almost falls under her spell when Miranda falls in love with their servant, the island boy Caliban. Ariel wants to march west, Prospero wants to sail east, and daughter Miranda wants to play on the beach with her boyfriend. Their clash comes to a head when Ariel, summoning her full powers, creates a cataclysmic storm that will change their lives and the island forever. Shakespeare scholar Grace Tiffany looks at the dark side of Shakespeare's The Tempest, investing a female Ariel with tremendous strength. The Tempest takes on new meaning for new readers, as Tiffany explores the imagination's power to transform grief into dangerous dreams.
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Enter Three Witches
by Caroline B. Cooney
When her father betrays the Scottish king and is hung as a traitor, Lady Mary's future is bleak after she loses her only true protector and ends up locked away in the tower by the powerful and deadly Lord and lady Macbeth.
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Shakespeare's Daughter
by Peter W. Hassinger
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 usually followed only by men.
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Rough Magic
by Caryl Cude Mullin
The half-wild man Caliban takes his princess charge Chiara and teams with a mysterious magical woman named Calypso to fight against a world that sees magic as evil and uses women as political pawns.