Synopsis: Kicking around a football one afternoon, a boy accidentally breaks a window, crawls through, and discovers he's in the back of a theatre. At the stroke of 4:00, he passes through the stage curtain and discovers he's time-travelled and walked onto the set of one of Shakespeare's plays. The Bard is furious at the disruption and a chase ensues. The boy frees a friendly performing bear on his flight, rescues a baron from near execution at the Tower of London, and introduces her to Queen Elizabeth who is having a boat party. But Shakespeare hasn't given up the chase and the bard and boy race through night-time London, all the way back to the Globe theatre.

Review: Australian Gregory Rogers gives readers a glorious romp through Elizabethan London with his deft comic-style illustrations in this wordless book. While these kinds of picture-book comics are more commonly found in continental Europe and Japan, Rogers follows in the full-colour comics tradition of writer-illustrators such as Raymond Briggs and Posy Simmonds.

Rogers' use of line, lovely colour palette and funny characters draw readers into the action-packed story, creating a fun context for readers to think about discuss Shakespeare and Elizabethan London. Rogers includes eye-catching details, such as ravens perched on (not very disgusting but quite funny) decapitated heads on spikes atop a tower on London Bridge. One of these scenes is particularly appealing, in its unusual angle, looking down upon the river, bridge and chimneyed rooftops. The reader can see the pursuing playwrite among the buildings, hidden like 'Where's Wally'. The big lumpy bright shape of the bear, the boy's friend, warms up atmopheric images of narrow cobbled passageways and the Tower dungeon. One may wonder at Shakespeare's day-long obsession with catching the boy, but in the humourous nature of the tale, readers will most likely be happy to suspend disbelief.

Being fun, attractive, fast-paced and wordless, this will be a book that even reluctant readers will want to check out of the library. Because the comics layout means more scenes can fit on a page than in a standard picture book, the reading experience is slightly more akin to a cinematic adventure, which children not raised on books may adjust to more easily. Readers who enjoy drawing and making comics can use it as inspiration for their own work, in the way Rogers employs a large variety of 'camera' angles, and the way every page has a different panel layout, which affect the story's pacing.

The book is followed by a sequel, 'Midsummer Knight'.

2008-02-19