Broach, Elise.
SHAKESPEARE'S SECRET
New York : Holt, 2005.
IL 5-8, RL 6.1
ISBN  0805073876

(2 booktalks)

Oh, hello, you’re new, aren’t you?” the teacher said, smiling. “I’ll introduce you to the rest of the class. Let’s see, your name is…” Mrs. Vanderley studied the attendance roster, pursing her lips. Here we go, thought Hero. “It’s Hero,” she
said, her voice ringing in the quiet classroom. “Hero Netherfield.” “Hero?” said a red-haired girl in the front row. “Hey, that’s my dog’s name.” A split second later the classroom erupted in laughter. Two boys in the back began whistling and slapping their jeans, calling, ”Here, Hero, here, girl!” Someone else yelled, “Watch out, she’s not housebroken!” Hero hurried across the room and slid into the empty seat, her heart filled with despair. There was no way the dog joke would end here. It was exactly the kind of mindless label that stuck to a person like glue. In this class, in this school, she would always be the girl named after a dog.

Hero hates the name her parents gave her—right out of a Shakespeare play---and she hates having to start in at another new school. But her life looks up when an elderly neighbor enlists her aid in solving the mystery of the disappeared “Murphy Diamond”. It’s valued at nearly 1 million dollars, and rumor has it that the thief hid it somewhere in Hero’s house! And another thing---the coolest boy in the eighth-grade seems awfully interested in helping Hero solve the mystery---why? And will this help her chances of fitting in with the other sixth-graders at Ogden Elementary, or hurt them?  (New Hampshire Great Stone Face 2007)

Booktalk #2

When Hero starts sixth grade at a new school, she's less concerned about the literary origins of her Shakespearean name than about the teasing she's sure to suffer because of it. So she has the same name as a girl in a book by a dusty old author. Hero is simply not interested in the connections. But that's just the thing; suddenly connections are cropping up all over, and odd characters and uncertain pasts are exactly what do fascinate Hero. There's a mysterious diamond hidden in her new house, a curious woman next door who seems to know an awful lot about it, and then, well, then there's Shakespeare. Not to mention Danny Cordova, only the most popular boy in school. Is it all in keeping with her namesake's origin-just much ado about nothing? Hero, being Hero, is determined to figure it out.  (Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award 2008)