Prince of Cats by Ron Wimberly. Just an
amazing read!

So this review was a long time coming. I had to thank my wife for making me do this blog and keeping me up to date on what I was reading. Been a couple of weeks since I've read this and really wanted to write about it. So without further adieu...

Prince of Cats by Ron Wimberly, formerly of the Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm, with Percy Carey, was a damn fine read. At least I thought it was. It took Shakespeare's words and without any prior knowledge as to how this book was going to be written, I was amazed at the fact that it was written in the same time frame. It harkens back to Baz Luhrmann's Rome + Juliet from the 90's, modern setting, but speaking in iambic pentameter. 

 I loved that Wimberly didn't try to dumb down the language and that it was accessible to students. I tried it out after I read it and let students that were okay with language and violence and who I thought would appreciate it take a crack at the book. 

I was shocked that they didn't realize it was the same style of language that they had first struggled with when reading Romeo and Juliet in my class their 9th grade year. In fact one of the three students said that what he had trouble with was the 1980's references and not the Shakespearean language. That just floored me. 

 Now what really brought on conversations was the scene towards the end of the book where Tybalt talks with the reverend. It is there, in that small scene, that you feel for Tybalt. I found myself doing something that I have rarely done while teaching Romeo and Juliet. I empathized with Tybalt. It was almost as if he knew what his fate was, after all this time, he knew, deep down inside that his life would be this revolving door of deaths but with this death there seemed to be a resigned peace. I actually felt bad for the Prince of Cats. Wimberly's tale of the second most prominent Capulet left me wanting to find a way to put this book into the hands of my freshman and sophomores in order to get them to see if it was only me that felt that way.

  The three students that did read the book agreed with me. I did not prompt them, but asked them how they felt about Tybalt's choice in the book, knowing that he could change his fate, and the response was unanimous among them, Fate had made its mark on Tybalt and he had to die, otherwise the story could not continue, but they did also feel bad for him, just like I did.

   That was something I never thought possible. Thank You Mr. Wimberly for injecting Romeo and Juliet with a new flavor and style and a different point of view for students to view this great play!