| Roy Edward Jackson holds degrees in Education, English, and Library Science. He has worked in public education in a variety of roles for over two decades. Currently, he is working on doctoral research concerning the rise in LGBTQIA+ book challenges in school libraries. He resides in Pennsylvania with his husband and menagerie of pets. Erinn Bentley is a professor of English education at Columbus State University. When not mentoring her pre-service teachers, she enjoys leading students on study abroad programs and traveling with her family. |   |
Contemporary Takes on Star-Crossed Lovers by Roy Edward Jackson and Erinn Bentley
Romeo and Juliet premiered over 425 years ago. For many readers, it is the first, and sometimes only, experience with Shakespeare. It may feel like a binary experience for teachers regarding students' responses to it; students seem to either love or hate the text. However, that love/hate response may not be as content driven it may seem. It could be more about access to the language and structure which can feel obscure and difficult for young readers. As teachers, we often incentivize our students to finish the text with promises of movie and book adaptations. This may be the wrong approach from many young readers. What often happens is after trudging through the text, with its difficult language, the a-ha moments come through in the adaptations. Oh, I get it now, that’s what that was about. There is something special about Romeo and Juliet that tugs at young readers with themes that are meaningful to them. Themes of love, class structure, duality, and fate. These themes resonate today 425+ years later. These themes are timeless and never tiresome. Perhaps though, the incentives that are offered after the reading may be better suited by reversing the timing. Reading, and watching, updated adaptations first gives the access point for readers to enjoy, and not trudge, through the original text. Three books are fantastic access entry points into one of Shakespeare’s most often taught plays in our schools. They are Romiette and Julio by Sharon M. Draper, If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson, and Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackmore.
Sharon M. Draper’s 1999 YA novel, Romiette and Julio, surprisingly doesn’t read dated for today’s young readers. The publishing date would indicate a bit of antiquated references; however Draper has constructed a strong novel with the right touches of timeliness that make today’s young readers relate to the overall structure. Romiette is a young African-American student born and raised in Cincinnati. A city nicknamed the Queen City of the West, is wisely chosen as the location. Romiette Capelle comes from local royalty with her ancho, newscaster father and local, boutique store owner mother. The family is well regarded and renowned. Julio Montague is a mid-year transfer student who recently moved from Corpus Christie (another aptly chosen city) Texas. As a Hispanic student of a modest means family, Julio struggles to find footing in school where he is marginalized. The two meet in a chatroom online, only to find they attend the same school. The novel follows the plot of the play with themes of class and race highlighting the story. The two go public at school with their relationship and spark the ire of a local gang, the Devil Dogs, who reign at school. While it has a different ending, Draper’s novel shines as a modern day adaptation with supporting characters that are fully fleshed out and matching well with Rosaline and Benvolio to the original play. The technology and newscasting resonates today for readers. In addition, Draper has utilized Romiette’s dreams in the book to show the power of foreshadowing, something that can get lost in the original play when a young reader struggles with the obscurity of the language. Romiette and Julio has accessible language, structure and plotting that make this a strong vehicle to gain entry into the text it originated from. Reading this prior to Shakespeare's text allows for students to not get bogged down and instead have a connection to the original play.
Jacqueline Woodson’s If You Come Softly takes more liberties with the original story, but perhaps packs a more heartbreaking punch than Draper’s adaptation. If You Come Softly is the story of Ellie, a white, Jewish girl from Manhattan and Brooklyn born Jeremiah who is Black. They meet at Percy Academy, one of New York’s most elite, and expensive, private academies. While both come from affluent families, Jeremiah is often mistaken for being a scholarship kid based on his race and position on the basketball team. Woodson wisely taps into the tropes and stereotypes that many Black young students are plagued with in American schools. This is shown when Jeremiah is erroneously placed in remedial classes with no justified reason. The love story is the heart of Romeo and Juliet, and it is the heart of Woodson’s novel. While the families are not warring against each other, the war that the two face is a society that has placed such stigma on race, particularly the Black race in America. Ellie faces little stigmatization at Percy, yet Jeremiah faces it routinely in and out of school. While Woodson doesn’t cast the story as closely as Draper did, the role of the nurse in Shakespeare’s text shines in Woodson’s novel where Ellie’s housekeeper, Marion, plays a highlighted role. Woodson packs a gut punch of an ending when Jeremiah, just after leaving Ellie for the evening, is gunned down in Central Park by the police for simply being a young Black man with a basketball in his palm. A novel published in 1998 sadly resonates all too true to the tragedy of young Black lives lost wrongly to the police over 25 years later. In fact, the tragedy of the ending is a perfect entry point for preparing kids for the tragedy of Shakespeare’s play when read after If You Come Softly.
Set in an alternative historical reality, Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackmon tells the story of two star-crossed lovers through their alternating points of view. Persephone (Sephy) and Callum reside in England in the early 2000s; however, this England is split by class and race: Crosses (dark-skinned people) are the ruling class and control the noughts (light-skinned people). Sephy (a Cross) is the daughter of a wealthy and powerful politician and Callum (a nought) is the son of Sephy’s nanny. They are best friends until Sephy’s mother fires Callum’s mother, forcing the teens to keep their ongoing relationship a secret. When Heathcroft, a Cross secondary school, allows a select number of noughts to attend, Sephy is thrilled to be reunited with Callum. Both, though, quickly realize that no one accepts their friendship. As Callum’s family becomes increasingly angered by the Crosses’ unjust governance, his father (Ryan) and older brother (Jude) join the LIberation Militia (LM) and are accused of bombing a local shopping center. Things disintegrate quickly for Callum’s family, as his older sister commits suicide, his father is arrested and imprisoned, Jude goes into hiding, and Callum is expelled from Heathcroft.
In typical star-crossed lovers fashion, a series of miscommunications leads to the couple’s separation, leaving Sephy to attend a boarding school and Callum to join the LM. When united years later under unusual circumstances, they resume their short-lived romance before Callum is forced to go back into hiding. Soon, Sephy discovers she is pregnant. Once this news is made public, Callum meets her for a midnight tryst, is discovered and arrested. Sephy’s father then presents both lovers with a heart-wrenching decision, ultimately sealing their fates.
The similarities to Romeo & Juliet are numerous, and this novel would pair well with the play or as an alternative reading. That being said, Noughts and Crosses also stands on its own as a literary text. Considering Britain’s colonial past, reimagining people of color as the more powerful race allows readers a unique perspective to examine racism. The Jim Crow-like laws, segregated schools, biased justice system, and hate-filled epithets in the novel, sadly, can be compared to current events here and around the world. The novel also offers quieter moments for readers to consider. For example, when a nought is injured at Heathcroft, Sephie is told, “‘They don’t sell pink Band-Aids. Only dark brown ones.’” Sephy admits, “I’d never really thought about it before, but she was right…Band-Aids were the color of us Crosses, not the noughts.” In Sephy’s world, the Crosses erased noughts by ensuring every television advertisement, magazine model, and first-aid bandage only matched their skin - much like our own country’s past and current history.
In addition to providing provocative themes and text-to-world connections, Noughts and Crosses offers characters who are flawed and realistic. Often in YA novels, the teenage protagonists are portrayed as heroes who are wise beyond their years. Sephy, on the other hand, is spoiled, immature, and naive through much of the first half of the novel, which is actually typical behavior for a 14-year-old child who has lived in a privileged, protected space. Callum is moody, impetuous, and stubborn - again, traits of a real teenager. Both characters disappoint their families, themselves, and each other, which I believe makes them more relatable and makes their relationship more poignant. While at the beginning of the novel they both dreamily imagine running off together, they adopt a mature and realistic view in their final moments together. Unfortunately, this realization comes too late, and readers are left wondering over the many decisions these characters made, and if they would have chosen differently. This novel is certain to spark impassioned discussions among student-readers.
Whether paired with the original Romeo and Juliet or read as an alternative text, these 3 novels offer unique opportunities for students to grapple with the universal themes of unrequited love, loyalty to family or friends, and the struggles associated with coming-of-age. We highly recommend adopting these novels in your classroom.
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