{{short description|1999 historical novel by Susan Cooper}} {{For|the Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu episode|King of Shadows (Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu)}} {{more citations needed|date=March 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox book <!-- |italic title = (see above) --> | name = | image = King of Shadows cover.jpg | image_size = | caption = First edition (US) | alt = | author = Susan Cooper | cover_artist = John Clapp<ref name=isfdb/> | country = US, UK | language = | subject = | genre = Children's historical novel, timeslip fantasy | publisher = Margaret K. McElderry, US | publisher2 = Bodley Head, UK | pub_date = October 1999, November 1999 | media_type = Print (hardcover) | pages = 186 pp, 181 pp<ref name=isfdb/> | awards = None | isbn = 0-689-82817-9 | oclc = 40444020 | dewey = | congress = PZ7.C7878 Ki 1999<ref name=LCC> [http://lccn.loc.gov/98051127 "King of shadows"] (U.S. edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 2013-03-14.</ref> }}
'''''King of Shadows''''' is a children's historical novel by Susan Cooper published in 1999 by Penguin In the United Kingdom. It was a finalist for both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
==Plot== Nathan 'Nat' Field is a young boy from Greenville, North Carolina. He is recruited by Arby, a theatrical director, to join the Company of Boys. They intend to produce A Midsummer's Night's Dream and Julius Caesar in London, at the re-built Globe Theatre, just as in Shakespeare's time. Nat is chosen to be Puck in a Midsummer Night's Dream and Pindarus in Julius Caesar. As he is going to their first rehearsal he feels odd. He returns to the house in which he is staying, feels ill and goes to bed early. He wakes up in a different room with a boy he doesn't recognise talking to him in a heavy Elizabethan accent, who says he thought he had the plague and is relieved to see him better. Nat realises he has travelled back 400 years in time, to the year 1599, when the Globe Theatre was first built. He meets William Shakespeare and acts with him in the play he had rehearsed for in his own time, and experiences the plays as they were originally intended. Before Nat knows it, he is back in the hospital bed, awake and unsure whether what he experienced was real. Later, Rachel Levin and Gil Warmun, his co-actors from the present time, try to find out who he was 400 years ago.
Synopsis
'''Nathan Field''', a talented young actor, arrives at the newly rebuilt Globe theatre in London to play '''Puck''' in '''A''' '''Midsummer's Night's dream''. As rehearsals begin, eerie echoes of the past begin to haunt Nat and he falls ill with a mysterious sickness. When he wakes, Nat finds himself in '''1599''', an actor at the original '''Globe''' - and his co-star is none other than the King of Shadows himself: '''William Shakespeare'''. Nat's new life is full of excitement, danger, and the passionate friendship that he has longed for since the tragic death of his parents. But why has he been sent to the past - and is he trapped there forever?
==Characters== Nathan 'Nat' Field, the main character of the story. ;1999 Arby, Gil Warmun, Rachel Levin, Mr. Fisher, Aunt Jen, Pudding Face, Eric, Ferdie, David Roper, Ray Danza, Joe Wilson, Alan Wong. ;1599 Richard Burbage, William Shakespeare, Roper, Queen Elizabeth I, Will Kempe, Richard Mulcaster, Harry, Sam and Henry Condell
==Characters as characters in the play== ;1999 NEIGAA
==Adaptations== ''King of Shadows'' was adapted for the stage in 2005 and first performed by the New York State Theatre Institute (NYSTI) starring P. J. Verhoest as Nat, David Bunce as Shakespeare, John Romeo as Burbage, and Aaron Marquise as Roper.
==See also== {{Portal|Children's literature |Speculative fiction }} * Shakespearean English * Time travel in fiction
==References== {{reflist |25em |refs= <ref name=isfdb> {{ISFDB title |19934}} (ISFDB). Retrieved 2013-03-14.</ref>
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==External links== * {{worldcat |oclc=42792110 }} —immediately, first UK edition <!--181pp 0370326202 --> * {{ISFDB name |2436 |Susan Cooper }}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:King Of Shadows}} Category:Novels by Susan Cooper Category:British children's novels Category:Children's historical novels Category:Novels about time travel Category:Novels set in Tudor England Category:Novels set in London Category:Novels about actors Category:2005 plays Category:1999 British novels Category:1999 children's books Category:The Bodley Head books Category:Margaret K. McElderry books Category:Children's books set in London Category:Children's books set in the 16th century Category:Fiction set in the 1590s Category:Children's books about time travel