posted on 22 Sep 2021

Tripwrecked! by Ross Montgomery, illustrated by Mark Beech

Twelve months ago, here at The Letterpress Project, we had the pleasure of reviewing Rock Bottom by Ross Montgomery which was the first in a series using the plots of Shakespeare plays as inspiration. Now we have the second in the series and although we jump from A Midsummer’s Night Dream to The Tempest there’s no change in the author’s aim – producing a new story with lots of knock-about fun.

Modest, unassuming Frank is a member of a drama club that’s got something of a dream gig – a chance for the school drama club to make a guest performance at a drama festival doing a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. But from the outset, it’s not quite the dream you’d imagine it to be:

“It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, but the second we stepped onto the ferry that morning I knew there was something wrong.”

And indeed there was. The ramshackle old ferry is hit by a sudden storm and all the actor-pupils and their teacher are sent overboard into a foaming sea. When Frank wakes up from the watery nightmare he finds himself on a beach and the truth slowly dawns on him – he’s been washed up on a desert island.

A handful of other pupils are there too but there’s no teacher and plenty of the rest of the cast are missing. How will they survive? In his own quiet way Frank starts to realise that some odd things are going on here and they seem to following the plot of the very play they had been booked to perform.

Although Frank is used to being ignored by the more popular members of his drama club, he finds a friend in the equally softly spoken Rianna and slowly their quiet common sense starts to come through – until the sudden appearance of their very own monstrous Caliban, raging through the forest and threatening (they think) to eat them all!

So what’s going on? How have they found themselves on a magical desert island so close to home and what’s going on with the magical music in the trees? But most pressingly, why is there are monster chasing them? Well, I’m not going to rob you of the pleasure of finding out for yourself – but you can be sure that Frank and Rianna are the ones to help sort it all out.

As with Rock Bottom, Tripwrecked also has plenty of lively illustration from Mark Beech.

The book comes in Barrington Stoke ‘super readable’ series and is guided for readers of 8 and above but it will give any younger reader a good chuckle.

Terry Potter

September 2021