FAKESPEARE

With the irreverence of Captain Underpants and the hilarity of My Weird School, this chapter book series—starring the world’s most reluctant reader, Kyle Word, and his desperate attempts to fight off the villains of the great classics with nothing but a fake spear—gives a new twist to the classic act of getting lost in a book.

When a mysterious (possibly evil) book shows up on reluctant reader Kyle Word’s doorstop with an even more mysterious (and possibly even more evil) note, Kyle and his friends soon discover that reading isn’t only about assignments and restaurant menus—it’s also about danger! And lies! And chamber pots! Because as soon as Kyle starts to read, they find themselves sucked out of the living room and into the middle of a castle... in Denmark. And, boy, does it stink. It only takes a sword to the seams of some very precarious male tights for them to realize that they are in the very dangerous world of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with only one way home: prove to the kingdom that Prince Hamlet isn’t crazy. But c’mon, how bad could it be when everyone just spouts poetry? The answer: Pretty bad. Turns out, Shakespeare’s play is more than just poems, kisses, and flouncy princesses. These are some seriously evil, seriously messed-up villains roaming the pages—from ghosts, to skulls, to wily uncles wielding enough stink bombs to knock out an entire castle. Kyle and his friends must figure out how to help Hamlet and go home before they smell like dog breath forever! M.E. Castle is the author of the Popular Clone series as well as an actor who graduated from Oberlin College in 2008 with a degree in Theatre. He has performed in many of Shakespeare’s plays and has learned to speak in iambic pentameter, hold a spear without tripping, and how to win a swordfight... as long as it’s on stage.