posted on 08 Jan 2023

Fortune’s Fools: A Romeo Roller Coaster! by Ross Montgomery

Ross Montgomery continues his hilarious plundering of the Shakespeare canon with Fortune’s Fools – a school sports-day fiasco based on the family rivalries of Romeo and Juliet. We’ve already enjoyed previous instalments featuring The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth and this new one follows a similar knock-about formula with plenty of high-octane silliness.

Shakespeare-loving head teacher, Mr Fortune, must have thought he’d had a great idea when he decided to name the school houses after key characters from the Bard’s play about a love between two people from families who can’t be reconciled. Little did he expect that, as the school sports day approached, Montague House, Capulet House, Benvolio House and Tybalt House would become so competitive that hostilities were in danger of breaking out – even amongst the staff.

Blake and Dom, best friends and the two finest athletes in the school, watch the growing animosity with bewilderment. Nothing, they insist, can break apart the two best friends – even though they are in different houses in the school. That is, nothing except the peer pressure that comes from being expected to win for your house.

As school sports day dawns, hostilities are reaching fever-pitch and Mr Fortune has to take sanctuary in the sports-field hut in order to referee events with finding himself being manhandled.

Soon the two inseparable friends and their belligerent mothers are at each-other’s throats and in face-to-face competition as Montague House and Capulet House go head-to-head in all of the school sports.

Can their friendship survive all this mayhem or are they going to be split apart forever? I don’t want to give away how it all plays out but what I will say is that the fate of the relationship between the two boys will all hinge on a three-legged race!

As with previous books in the series, we get the bonus of full and part-page illustrations from Mark Beech who uses his cartoon skills to add an extra dose of bedlam to the proceedings.

Guided for readers of 9+, the book comes from the ever-excellent publishing house of Barrington Stoke and will be available in January 2023. You will be able to order a copy from your local independent bookstore.

 

Terry Potter

January 2023