Something Rotten

Something Rotten (by Alan Gratz) is a story loosely based on Hamlet (by William Shakespeare). Like Malcolm X (graphic novel), I really enjoy teaching this book with my high school students. It's a fairly easy reading level, but there are still plenty of vocabulary words to push students and the class discussions surrounding the story's mystery are absolutely juicy. It's always fun to teach this book because both girls and guys love the who-dunnit drama of a mystery and it's all surrounding teenage main characters. I also particularly enjoy the sassy humor Gratz has managed to work in with his narrator, Horatio.

Horatio helps investigate his best friend's father's death. Hamilton, Horatio's best friend, has recently returned home to mourn the death of his father and then witness the marriage of Trudy (Hamilton's mom) and Claude (Hamilton's uncle). Hamilton's rage manifests itself in drunken stupors and outrage.

In the meantime, Horatio tries to contain Hamilton's rage by agreeing to help him find the killer. Shortly after this agreement, Horatio realizes he's in over his head. There's a pollution problem, a curious ex-boyfriend of Hamilton's mom, and Hamilton's ex-girlfriend. Horatio finds himself not only looking for facts to find a killer, but he's also trying to figure out how and why Rex Prince (Hamilton's deceased dad) was murdered... but things are never as simply as they seem in a small town named Denmark, Tennesee.

I particularly enjoy reading and re-reading this book because of the snarky humor and the great twists that lend for amusing student discussions and fun pictures to represent each day's reading. At the end of the unit, I enjoy comparing this story to the original (Hamlet) and then we connect the stories by creating graphic novels to represent the stories and the inconsistencies. I find that the creativity is really able to flow with this assignment and students love the opportunity to read something fun, funky and drama-filled. This is definitely a winner and I've also had student tell me that Something Wicked (based on MacBeth) is just as good.