The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet by Erin Dionne

Reviewed by Jennifer

Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES


Ratings Explanation

Language: 3 instances of “jackass” in reference to the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Adult Themes: Hamlet’s parents focus their attention on 7-year-old Desdemona, the genius of the family, and ignore Hamlet. Sibling rivalry. (Not really adult topics, but good for discussion)

Synopsis

Hamlet Kennedy’s main goal for her 8th grade year is to blend in. But with an anything-but-average family, this task is proving more difficult than she anticipated. Desdemona, her 7-year-old genius sister, is attending 8th grade with Hamlet to complete some art credits before she scoots off to college. Hamlet is horrified to learn that her class will be doing a special “Salute to Shakespeare” project complete with making Globe Theater replicas and performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This wouldn’t be so bad except that her parents are Shakespearean professors and overall disciples of The Bard and will certainly want to come to school to help out with the projects.  Their usual Elizabethan garb, including her mother’s purple velvet cape complete with tinkling bells, does not facilitate “blending in” at all! As if that weren’t enough to ruin Hamlet’s life,  Desdemona becomes a math tutor for those struggling in pre-Algebra (a group that includes Hamlet). When Hamlet discovers she has a hidden talent totally consistent with her family’s Shakespearean weirdness, blending in becomes, in a word, impossible. But is standing out really a total tragedy?

I bought this book strictly because I loved the title, but no objectionable content, a fun story with plenty of emotion, clever writing, and a lesson every kid needs to learn make this total tragedy completely enjoyable. The Elizabethan flair is my favorite. “It was Sunday, which was seventeenth-century chicken stew night…which was way better than ‘pottage of mutton’ night.” And my all time favorite passage,

“We’re late already,” I pointed out.

Mom’s eyes darkened. “Hamlet, you know how I feel about the use of contractions.”

“Commoner’s speech,” I muttered. Mom nodded.

It just made me chuckle to see Hamlet totally humiliated by her family. Isn’t embarrassment one of our main jobs as parents? Two of my children have read this book so I asked them if I do things that embarrass them on a regular basis. Luckily they said no, but Dad on the other hand…

Of course the book has a perfect ending and Hamlet is able to put everything in perspective, learning that, “Maybe being anything but average wasn’t a total tragedy after all.” Huzzah!