read for school

Very clever re-telling. Much admiration for this skilful update on an old story. But unfortunately, for me, it was coloured (no pun intended) by how much I’ve loathed Othello ever since we studied it in high school. Teenage me was extremely frustrated about how much agony could’ve been avoided if Desdemona had just admitted she’d lost her damn hanky!

Othello is not my favorite play, but this retelling is fascinating. She telescopes the story down one day of school with a cast of sixth graders about to leave elementary school for junior high. I enjoyed it, as much as you can enjoy Shakespearean tragedy starring 12-year-olds.

New Boy is Tracy Chevalier's contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare retelling. The story is a retelling of Othello set in the 1960s/1970s suburbs of Washington, DC. My biggest issues with the book were its pacing and the shift in tone. The premise is really interesting--a playground version of the play with six graders as the characters as young O is a new boy in an all white school. However, the story both drags (it all takes place in one school day) and then shifts and moves too rapidly toward the end. O's character is well developed in the beginning, but by the end of the text he is almost one-dimensional. Likewise, the tone feels uneven. I expected the story to be dark--it is a tragedy after all, and most of the text maintains that sinister feel, but the ending is almost too much/unbelievable given that the characters are sixth graders.

A brilliant take on Othello. Fresh and creative, building on the original.

Well, I've been the new black girl. Chevalier successfully shows the intricacies of hierarchies and relationships within the world of 11-year-olds. Succinct.

Ended up liking it. Othello is not one of my favourite of Shakespeare's plays, despite having studied it with the excellent professor Ko from Wellesley college. I've always found the drastic change in Othello's character totally unbelievable. And so it was with this book. The author does give a plausible back story to try to explain O's words and actions, and the Iago/Ian character is well drawn. It's fun to remember the play's characters and their counterparts in this novel.

I was lucky enough to win this book on Goodreads! The title was on my TBR already since I am a fan of the author. It's a retelling of Shakespeare's Othello in mid-1970s Washington D.C. The entire story takes place in a single day. I enjoyed it...the story is thought out; characters are well developed; and, the writing flows nicely with each character. This could definitely be added to school reading lists dealing with racism and discrimination.

Chilling story that sees Othello played out in a single day on the playground and classroom of a sixth grade circle of students in a DC suburb in the 70s...