Peter, a boy from Cumberland, is forced to flee his home when he's spotted trying the hit the wicked local nobleman with a rock. This sets him up for all sorts of adventures, including joining up with a traveling theater troupe, befriending a girl-in-disguise who's also a fugitive from home, meeting and working for Marlowe and Shakespeare in Elizabeth's England, and finally becoming a spy in her majesty's service to help foil a treasonous plot against her, which takes him full circle and right back to his homeland.
There are stretches of time when I consider abandoning my goal of reading through the 1001 Children's Books list because I've found so many of them not to my taste, but then one comes along that restores my faith in the project by virtue of being such a wonderful read. This is one of those books. It's a fun and fast-paced romp from the beginning to the end, with great characters and a very enjoyable plot. I loved it. ( )

Nice read for tweens. ( )

Can't believe it I haven't read it before. Love it and want to read more. Oops, think that's another author for my collection. ( )

Grade 9 English syllabus included this book. I quite adore conversations about Shakespeare and have obviously read a few Shakespeare biographies as well as novels where he's a character. Usually those are ridiculous, and I think this counts. This book includes the girl-pretending-to-be-a-boy-to-act plot, which is such a dead horse trope that somehow bothers me a lot. I dislike that its used as a short-cut in writing female characters in historical fiction in the hopes of making them "relatable" to modern young readers. I also generally dislike the way Shakespeare is portrayed in fictional media and for that reason cannot understand why I willingly consume it whenever available and considered writing a thesis about it. ( )

My favourite book when I was 11. I still enjoy re-reading it all these years later. A great story stands the test of time. ( )