Customer Reviews

Cue for Treason

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Geoffrey Trease is an inexplicably neglected author in the United States, perhaps because he focuses on English history. But any of his books would be a fabulous gift for your favourite child, because no one makes history seems as relevant, as personal and as fun as he does. Whatever your interest, Trease has probably written about it--revolutions French and Russian, Napoleon, Cavaliers and Roundheads--and of course, Tudor England, most famously Cue For Treason. There has never been a better fictional adventure written for children and adults who like history and I challenge all to read this book! If you can't find it, be patient, it's worth the wait.

Just a brief note to teachers: use this book! If you want to spark interest in things "Shakespearean" before reading/studying his plays, this great book is the way to go. I assign it for summer reading before my grade eight clases arrive for first class. Write me if you have "Cue for Treason" teaching ideas to share!

I read Cue for Treason in 1973 just because I was interested in history. I loved the book so much that I kept my original hard cover copy and recently gave it to my l4 year old son to read. It was not a part of his grade 9 english but he also loved the story. We both recommend this book to other children and adults.

A pity this book is now so difficult to get hold of. The plot is excellent and, having been raised in the area he writes of, I can vouch that the descriptions of Cumberland are accurate to the point of evoking homesickness! This book helped to inspire in me a love of history which has blossomed as I've grown older. We lost my old copy when we emmigrated and I was quite upset. However, after much searching I am now devouring this tale all over again and loving every second. Definitely a book I'll be sharing with my children!

I have not thought about this book for many years. I read it in 7th grade back in 1963. Mr.Trease brought the adventure and romance of the period to life like no other author we had ever read. I remember that no one in the class - male or female-could put the book down and we discussed it and dissected it at length.I rediscovered the book nearly thirty years later when my children were assigned Cue for treason in their respective classes. Recently I met a grade 7 teacher from Boston. While discussing required reading, I mentioned Cue for treason and the fondness with which I remenbered it. She had never heard of the book! Wanting to share the joy of reading this special book for young adults, I vowed to send her a copy. After looking online and calling bookstores to no avail, I was finally able to locate and order a copy from the publisher. No young adult, especially one who hates reading, should miss out on this treasure.

As most of the other readers of this book, I was (and actually still am) in grade nine when I read this. While the inevitable convoy of worksheets and projects came afterwards, it did nothing to subtract from the actual book's quality. The richness and simplicity of Geoffrey Trease's imagery in his writing is wonderful, as he can be descriptive, interesting, stay true to the truth, and still not show evidence of the usual "Verbal vomit" that many writers spew onto the pages of their published books. (Interesting choice of metaphor, no?) Anyway, another thing I liked about it was the author's ability so write so thoroughly while seeing it from Peter's point of view, as it further strengthens the concept that all of the action in Cue For Treason is swirling around the main character. Some books I've read have just created the main character as the "Conquering hero" and then focus on the secondary characters. Nine times out of ten these books are written in the third person.

What is great about Cue for Treason is the subtlety of it all. The story does not openly tell you that this book is in the year so-and-so or that my name is so-and-so and this is a tale about a plot to kill the Queen. Instead, Trease leaves subtle clues and the sense of foreshadowing and suspense to capture the reader's interest, and in the process spins a very interesting yarn. Trease chose a spectacular setting for CFT. Shakespearean England, and the end of the Tudor dynasty is a great setting, not as crude as the Middle Ages, and not quite as snooty and class-sensitive as the Victorian era...

...Which brings us to another topic - feminism. Kit is a wonderful character, completely offsetting the usual and stereotyped girl of that era with wit, charm, and intellect. Peter usually takes it in stride, but he cannot abide the fact that she has saved his life numerous times. Such a character is unique to many writers and is many people's favourite.

As a Tudor History buff, I rather enjoyed the book as something approaching a light reading break from the other historical novels of like Fatal Majesty, and other such books, and this was refreshingly simple to read. There isn't a pretentious word in the whole thing.

As a kid in Phoenix, AZ, I found Geoffrey Trease's books in the public library. After the first one, I devoured the rest. Up to that time I always said I didn't like history [classes, in school]. But after reading Trease's books, I became interested & tried Meader, and others.
We moved away, & I lost the author & titles. But recently I went hunting. My favorite Trease books were the ones about Shakespeare (Cue for Treason), and his pair on Garibaldi. With neither author nor titles, I've had to hunt hard, & read a lot of children's books. But when I found Cue for Treason, I knew I'd found the right one. After 30 years, I still remember the story well [that right there tells you it's a good book!].
Trease was a good historian [even if his political views were off :) ]. Better yet, he makes history come alive. Look for ALL of his fiction. Wait - ignore that: wait until I have a complete collection, THEN look for them!

I too was given this title as "required" reading as a student in 8th grade in Canada. It still remains a book that had an enormous impact in my love of reading!

I loved this story as a kid, and wanted a copy for my daughters. However, the errors in this edition make it inapropriate for the children. The Product Description warns you that the original book was scanned and OCR'd, and to expect numerous errors, and this is absolutely true. Mistakes are common, particularly regarding punctuation. It's unfortunate that the scanned edition wasn't run through an automatic spelling & grammar checker, as many of the errors could have been corrected: Many words are misspelled, words are frequently pushed together (no space between them), words are occasionally missing. By buying this book, you can download the original PDF copy on their website.

I also read this book in Grade 8 over 45 years ago. It was awesome!! I can't say that it improved my opinion of Shakespeare, but I will love Kit and Peter until my dying day. The plot was terrific and the ending was very satisfying. I read all of Geoffrey Trease's books after I read Cue for Treason, and they were all great. He was still writing up to a few years ago at the age of 83!! Long live Geoffrey!!!