King of Shadows

A Book Report
presented to
the Faculty of the
English Department
Antique National School
San Jose, Antique

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements in English 7
STE Curriculum

by
BLESSIE MAE Y. LANAYON
August, 2015

King of Shadows
King of Shadows by Susan Cooper is a fiction story and a tale about a young boys
journey to overcome his devastating past in exchange for a hopeful future. It is also a novel story
which focuses on the challenges that come to the life of Nat.
Nat(Nathan Field) is the main character of the story, he is an orphan boy who escapes
into the world of the theatre to avoid his sadness. Nat is a magically transported character who
goes back to Elizabethan England who learns to face his emotions and properly grieve his
parents. Nat and other part of the team rehearse in the United states for three weeks, and then
will travel across the Atlantic to London, England, to perform their plays.
One night he gets a bad fever. He goes to bed feeling dreadful. Then, the next morning he
is woken up by a strange voice, that turns out belonging to Harry. He has no idea where he is and
who Harry is. Then he realises that he needs to know to do his business. He is told to do it in a
smelly bucket in the corner, then its casually tossed out of the window by Harry. Thats what
tells him that he has gone back in time.
Then Nat realise that he visits year 1599 in his dreams it is thought to be a different
Nathan Field, who was actually born in the 16 th century. In actual fact, and the Elizabethan
Nathan Field had swapped places. He is thought to go to St. Pauls School of Boys. He has
joined Lord Chamberlains Men, the acting company of William Shakespeare, just for a while for
a performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream, in the Globe Theatre, in front of Queen
Elizabeth herself.
In the time that he visits the year 1599 he seen a blood in the floor and he remember his
father. His father done a suicide and Nat seen this and Nat thought that his father didnt love him

because he killed his self. Shakespeare told Nat that even his father killed his self his father still
loves him.
At the theatre at the other day, Roper chokes an apple and Nat perform the Heimlich
Maneuver to save him. The members of the company shocked because the Heimlich Maneuver
has not yet been invented. Because of this accident other members of the team began to think
that Nat is a white witch. The next day of that day is the performance day and everyone are
nervous because of that anticipation.
Nat goes to sleep feeling hopeful because they decided to dress their representative like
Queen Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth likes their performance, their costumes and the cheers of
their teammates in support of their representative. And the Queen ask the company if their team
can perform in the place of the Queen.
When Nat goes sleep his very happy because he actually solved his problem. When he
wakes up his back in his life in year 1999. But it is not the end of his problem, he returns in
rehearsal for A Midsummer Nights Dream with his team. Nat argues with Arby, the director of
the production, he runs with the tears in his life after the director speaks badly of Shakespeare.
Nat tells his friends Gil and Rachel about his trip in year 1599 and his friends believe him. They
do research and they discover that Nat must have switched with other Nat Field from 1599, who
had bubonic plague, in order to save Shakespeare from catching the disease. Arby tells Nat that
he intentionally cast Nat in the Company of Boys so that he can swap could take place. With this
new understanding, Nat is able to find significance in his past and can finally address his grief
properly.

This story tells about the challenges came to the life of every person. I love
reading it because i can relate in this story. When i read the summary of this story I dont
want to read it because actually Im not fun of reading this kind of books, usually I read
books about love story and others but not like this book. Im not happy because I didnt
read the next kind of this book and I wanna search it and i will read it because the story of
this book is very beautiful.