BOOKS
Schwartz & Wade /
Random House, 2018
978–1‑5247–1619‑6
young adult
buy the book
hardcover
paperback
After you’ve read Fatal Throne, try this book:
Fatal Throne
The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All
The tragic lives of Henry VIII and his six wives are reimagined by seven acclaimed and bestselling authors in this riveting novel, perfect for fans of Wolf Hall and Netflix’s The Crown.
He was King Henry VIII, a charismatic and extravagant ruler obsessed with both his power as king and with siring a male heir.
They were his queens — six ill-fated women, each bound for divorce, or beheading, or death.
Watch spellbound as each of Henry’s wives attempts to survive their unpredictable king and his power-hungry court. See the sword flash as fiery Anne Boleyn is beheaded for adultery. Follow Jane Seymour as she rises from bullied court maiden to beloved queen, only to die after giving birth. Feel Catherine Howard’s terror as old lovers resurface and whisper vicious rumors to Henry’s influential advisors. Experience the heartache of mothers as they lose son after son, heir after heir.
Told in stirring first-person accounts, Fatal Throne is at once provocative and heartbreaking, an epic tale that is also an intimate look at the royalty of the most perilous times in English history.
M.T. Anderson, writing as Henry VIII
Candace Fleming, writing as Katharine of Aragon
Stephanie Hemphill, writing as Anne Boleyn
Lisa Ann Sandell, writing as Jane Seymour
Jennifer Donnelly, writing as Anna of Cleves
Linda Sue Park, writing as Catherine Howard
Deborah Hopkinson, writing as Kateryn Parr
Resources
- Fatal Throne Educator’s Guide
Awards and Honors
- Amelia Bloomer List
- New York Public Library Best Book for Teens TOP 10
Reviews
“A rowdy group of students and their eccentric teacher star in Fleming’s collection of determinedly loopy vignettes, each of which ends with an Aesop-like moral. On the day before school opens, the frantic principal still has not found a teacher for the notoriously unruly fourth graders. In walks Mr. Jupiter, whose credentials include working as a translator for Bigfoot, discovering the lost city of Atlantis and studying at the Coochie-Coochie Institute for Misbehaved Monkeys; he is hired on the spot. When he refuses to react to his students’ misbehavior, they think up pranks guaranteed to rile him, but no one dares to pull them off (moral: “It is one thing to talk about it, another to do it”). … there’s plenty to laugh at and even to ponder.” (Publishers Weekly)
“No teacher wants to teach this year’s fourth-grade class at Aesop Elementary. Just as Mrs. Struggles, the principal, is about to give up, Mr. Jupiter appears with a flawlessly huge resume. The class tests him, but he wins them over as the year progresses through these 23 stories. As the title and school’s name hint, there’s an Aesop connection. Each of the stories has a moral straight out of a fable. … this is a winner, and the final story seems to promise a fifth-grade sequel.” (Kirkus Reviews)