Perchance to Dream by Lisa Mantchev (book #2 of the Theater Illuminata series)

Read by: Anna/Copley Teen Room

This is the second book in the Theatre Illuminata series (The first book is entitled Eyes Like Stars.) and is a continuation of Bertie Shakespeare Smith’s story started in the first book. She’s on the hunt for her lost love, Nate, a pirate from the Little Mermaid play who was stolen by the Sea Goddess Sedna. She is also looking for the father she’s never known. She promised her mother, Ophelia, she would bring him back to the Theatre with her, where every character from every play that’s ever been written is trapped by magic. The only way to leave the Theatre is to tear out the entrance page of a character. This is how she and the air spirit, Ariel, from William Shakespeare’s A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream leave to find Nate and her father.  Accompanying them on their trip are the four abnoxious fairies, also from A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. These four have nothing on their mind except eating pie and causing trouble, be it on their own mini traveling stage, or crashing a wedding party and falling in love with the sugar-made groom on top of the once beautiful wedding cake.

I love this series! And I think the main reason why I love it is because of the four fairies: Peaseblossom, Moth, Cobweb, and Mustardseed. They are so hilarious I was laughing so hard I cried. I just can’t get enough of their antics. The other thing I like about this series is it’s uniqueness. It’s a magical realm in the land of the theater with characters that most people know from Shakespeare. She brings a new light to his (and other) plays, so that the reader can enjoy these charactera and will perhaps want to go back and reread Shakespeare’s work. There were only two things I didn’t like about this particular book. The first was that some of the magic and the reasons why Bertie had to do what she did, didn’t make much sense, though I’m hoping this will be cleared up in the next book. And the other was that I missed the four fairies as Bertie left them behind for awhile in her quest to find Nate. So in those two senses, the first book was even better than the second, but don’t at all let that dissuade you from reading this one too. I still enjoyed it very much and am looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy, So Silver Bright.

Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev

Read by: Anna/Copley Teen Room

I picked up this book only because the cover of the third book in the series really drew me in. I loved the character’s white hair, and the fairies flying around her head. It turns out, Bertie loves to dye her hair in different outrageous colors. In the first book it’s blue, with the wild name of Cobalt Flame. Bertie was left at a magical theater when she was just a little child and doesn’t remember her mother. The theater, is home to every character ever written into a play, from Hamlet to the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid. These characters are bound to the theater, unable to leave its confines through the use of magic. But what happens when one of those characters, figures out a way to free himself? Bertie, must find a way to stop him from destroying the entire theater, all while proving her usefulness by directing a new production of Hamlet in less than a week.

This book was a great lighthearted read. My favorite parts had the four fairies from A Midsummer Night’s Dream making trouble and causing laughs. It was an enjoyable surprise to find out who Bertie’s mother actually was, and I also liked the fact that all the characters stayed in character even when they were not acting in a play. Nate, from The Little Mermaid was constantly dressed, acting, and talking like a pirate, for example, even when he was talking to Ophelia who constantly wanted to drown herself on the Little Mermaid set. The interactions between the characters were the best part of this book for me, and I’m wondering what will happen in the next book when Bertie leaves the theater to continue her adventures.