30. Shakespeare's Scribe by Gary Blackwood

This novel was Kate's pick for her bedtime story and we finally finished it. It's the second in a three book series about an orphan boy named Widge who lives in Shakespeare's time. In the first book, which I read years ago, Widge eventually becomes an actor in Shakespeare's acting company. So in this book, Widge and the rest of the company are forced to leave London and take the show on the road because of a plague outbreak. While on the road, Shakespeare breaks his arm somehow (I can't remember how because I read it a chapter a night over 2 months time) and Widge becomes his scribe as he tries to write the play, All's Well that Ends Well (Widge is the only one who has experience in dictation). Widge is also forced to face some of his own personal demons like who his parents are and if he's a strong enough actor to retain his place in the company. I liked the book and I think Kate did too. It probably would have been better if I had been reading it a little faster, but other than that I thought it was a pretty good historical fiction, and the parts about the plague were really interesting. I think the whole series is definitely worth a read.