Nerves Cleared Up

King Of Shadows
By:  Susan Cooper
I read from chapter eleven through fourteen.

Chapter 11:  In chapter 11, it was the day before they were to preform A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Queen.  Shakespeare, Master Burbage and some other men from the company went to a tavern.  Nathan and Harry went along as well.  They sat in a corner and talked while Shakespeare and Master Burbage talked a another table in a corner.  When Shakespeare and Nat got home, Nat asked Shakespeare if he could stay with him once they preformed A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Shakespeare said that he would have to go back to St. Paul's which is where they "know" that he came from.  Shakespeare told Nat to go get his nightshirt on and that he would be in with something in a minute. He came back with a sonnet that he had written for a women, but made a copy for Nat after he found out about his parents.  Nat asked Shakespeare to read it to him, and he did.  Shakespeare then told him to get a good nights sleep.

Chapter 12:  In this chapter, they went back to 1999 where Nat was in the hospital with the Bubonic plague.  His aunt Jennifer had come from South Carolina to make sure that he was alright.  They wouldn't let her see Nathan though because on the computer, it says 'No Visitors', so they wouldn't let her see him until tomorrow.  They had taken him off of his IV though.

Chapter 13:  They woke up, and they were both nervous because this was the day that they would be preforming the play for the Queen.  Shakespeare changed his clothes three different times and decided on the outfit that he had on first.  Nat didn't want to eat anything, but Mistress Fawcett made him. Mistress Fawcett is the lady who takes care of the house for William Shakespeare.  They walked over to the theater and Master Burbage started to paint Nathan into Puck.  He painted him in green with vines, leaves, and branch type things on him.  Nat also wore the green leggings that they had for him, but before that happened, soldiers came in the theater and started searching the theater to make sure that it was safe so that the Queen could come.  After Nat was done getting painted, Master Burbage painted Shakespeare.  While the people where waiting for the play to start, there was a cutpurse (a pickpocket) who got caught in act.  People tied him up to a post on the stage and threw apple cores and nut shells at him.  There was a drunk man who had a knife who climbed up on the stage and was going to hurt him when Master Burbage ran out and stopped him from doing so.  Right at the end of the chapter, Queen Elizabeth arrived.

Chapter 14:  The play started and everything went smoothly.  A funny part was when Puck went to squeeze the "juice" from the flower on Lysander's eyes, and a girl in the crowd said that he was not the right one.  Nathan played along with her, pretending that he had heard something, but did it anyway.  They dressed up Hippolyta just like the Queen herself.  The crowd loved it.  At the end, they went out to the audience three different times because they were cheering so loudly.  The third time, there were soldiers in the tiring house along with the man that had come to Shakespeare's house earlier in the story (in chapter 10.)  He said that the Queen wanted to see Master Burbage, William Shakespeare, and Nat.  That is how the chapter ended, and that is how I am going to leave you until next week.

Question:  I wonder if the drunken man would have killed the boy if Master Burbage hadn't come in.  I also wonder what will happen to Nat when he goes back to St. Paul's.

Prediction:  I predict that the Queen will be overly happy with the way the play turned out, and how the Globe theater looks.  I think that she will have only good things to say.  I predict that Nat will go back to St. Paul's and they won't notice a difference at all.

Connection:  My connection this week is a text to movie connection and a text to text connection.  I watched the Sound Of Music, and in the movie, the children put on a puppet show for their parents.  In Cheaper By The Dozen, the kids put on a play for their parents like very year I think.  That connects to Nat doing a play for someone special as well just like their parents were special, so was the Queen.

Key Question:  There is no Key Question again this week!!!  :)

Saving Zasha:
I only read one chapter this week, so that would make me up to chapter 18.  I don't think that Finding Zasha has anything to do with Saving Zasha unless if it ties in some how that it doesn't tell you on the back of the book.