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Perfect for anyone playing the Six soundtrack on repeat who wants to discover more about the six wives of Henry VIII! This is an edge-of-your-seat reimagining of the romance and tragedy that defined them, told from multiple points of view by award-winning and bestselling authors.

If you were one of King Henry VIII's six wives, who would you be? Would you be Anne Boleyn, who literally lost her head? The subject of rumor and scandal like Catherine Howard? Or would you survive like Anna of Cleves?
     Meet all Henry's queens--each bound for divorce or death--in this epic novel that reads like fantasy but really happened. Watch spellbound as each wife attempts to survive their unpredictable king as he grows more obsessed with producing a male heir. And discover how the power-hungry court fanned the flames of Henry's passions . . . and his most horrible impulses.
     Brought to life by seven award-winning and bestselling authors, here is an intimate look at the royals during one of the most treacherous times in history, perfect for anyone fascinated by Britain's Royal Family or Netflix's The Crown.

"Ambitious and exciting." --Bustle

"These stories of love, lust, power and intrigue never fail to fascinate." --Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

Who's Who:

M. T. Anderson - Henry VIII
Candace Fleming - Katharine of Aragon, wife #1
Stephanie Hemphill - Anne Boleyn, wife #2
Lisa Ann Sandell - Jane Seymour, wife #3
Jennifer Donnelly - Anna of Cleves, wife #4
Linda Sue Park - Catherine Howard, wife #5
Deborah Hopkinson - Kateryn Parr, wife #6
© Erin Thompson
M. T. Anderson has written a wide variety of titles, including works of fantasy and satire for a range of ages. Anderson grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts. He was educated in English literature at Harvard University and Cambridge University, and went on to receive his MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University.

M. T. Anderson is the author of a number of celebrated books including the Thrilling Tales series, as well as The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1, The Pox Party, which won the National Book Award and a Printz Honor, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves, which also won a Printz Honor. Feed was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the L.A. Times Book Award for YA fiction in 2003 and was a finalist for the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award.

M. T. Anderson currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. View titles by M. T. Anderson
© Scott Fleming
Candace Fleming is the prolific and versatile award-winning author of many books for children and young adults. Her most recent title, The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh, received six starred reviews, was a Kirkus, PW, Booklist, and SLJ Best Book of the Year, and was hailed by the Wall Street Journal as a "fascinating chronicle." Candace's The Family Romanov also received six starred reviews and won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was recognized as a Sibert Nonfiction Honor Book. Amelia Lost received four starred reviews and won the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction. Her many acclaimed picture books include Giant Squid, a Sibert Honor Book. Visit her on the web at candacefleming.com. View titles by Candace Fleming
© VanDoren Photography
Because in her journals, letters, and fiction, Sylvia un-bandages wounds and wonders that most people don’t want to admit exist. Because she tells dangerous truths. “This is what it is like to be complete. It is horrible.”

Sylvia forges through the crests and the crashes of self-examination for us on her pages. Her writing binds me to her, close, under her skull and skin. And I think that may be one of the primary things great writing can do– become your companion.

And what an insightful companion she is! Tossing off lines like “The courage of a shut mouth, in spite of artillery!” When I read, “It was a place of force—the wind gagging my mouth with my own blown hair,” her expression of my own experiences seemed uncanny. I have lived in that boxed space of being in a relationship with someone by choice and yet feeling that I had no choice but to stay, as I had willingly put myself in that cage. And yet when I wrote about this, my own words did not express my feelings as well as Sylvia had. She understood me, and said it best.

Sylvia even writes with clarity about not being able to write. In some sense almost everyone has experienced the dreadful blank page, the cursor blinking on an empty document, the e-mail that you just don’t know how to begin. Fingers drum the keyboard, but can’t depress any letters. Sylvia’s journals keep me company when this happens. She too, even though she wrote voluminously, struggled with feeling empty and unable to push a pen across paper. And when she couldn’t write, like me, she turned to baked goods! Sylvia created them, while I only consume them, but still I feel we have this in common.

So why did I write this book, now? Others have already written Sylvia’s biography. Sylvia’s own daughter has expressed the opinion that people should leave the story of hermother’s life alone. How then could I justify writing this book? Why should I convey how I see Sylvia’s life?

Honestly, part of writing Your Own, Sylvia was a willful denial on my part of what I was undertaking. How could I possibly write a whole book of poems about Sylvia Plath? They would never hold up under the weight of her talent. But somehow I let that go. I thought about the first time I came to Plath in the classroom. I knew little about her life, not much beyond the fact that she killed herself. And although I admired her writing, I could not initially see its depth. Sylvia’s work seemed difficult, purposely obtuse, and so I dismissed pieces of hers as remote and even cold. But learning about her life helped me to unpack various themes and metaphors that would otherwise have remained closed to me. Instead of being cold, I saw that Sylvia’s writing borders on frenzy at times. She holds her work close to her and you feel its heat and impact. I don’t think it always follows that knowing a writer’s biography is essential to understanding their work, but the knowledge I gained about Sylvia’s life as I researched and wrote this book enhanced my experience of her writing. I had always loved her poems’ fabulous opening lines, such as: “Viciousness in the kitchen,”-Lesbos ;“Stasis in darkness,”-Ariel; and “Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts”-Poppies in October. When I found out what was going on in Sylvia’s life at the time she penned each of these lines, the words resonated with even greater impact. My book offers a window into Sylvia’s life in the hopes of helping readers appreciate her writing more fully.

Sylvia published her first poem at eight and wrote until her last days, creating astonishing work whether she was serene, joyful, or in crisis. Her writing captivates and inspires me. She is a friend that is always there on the bookshelf when I need her, with a great line, a brilliant sentence, to pull me through. I wish that her own words could have done the same for her. And I hope my book leads you to her. View titles by Stephanie Hemphill
Lisa Ann Sandell is the author, most recently, of A Map of the Known World, which Publishers Weekly called "poetic" in a starred review; Song of the Sparrow; and The Weight of the Sky, called "lovely" and "poignant" by Kirkus Reviews. She is also an editor of children's books. She lives in New York City. Visit Lisa Ann Sandell on the Web at lisaannsandell.com. View titles by Lisa Ann Sandell
© Doug Dundas
Jennifer Donnelly is the author of the adult novels The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, and The Wild Rose, as well as the young adult novels These Shallow GravesRevolution, and A Northern Light, winner of Britain's prestigious Carnegie Medal, the LA Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature, and a Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award. She lives and writes full-time in Upstate New York. You can visit her at jenniferdonnelly.com or follow @JenWritesBooks on Twitter. View titles by Jennifer Donnelly
© Klaus Pollmeier
Linda Sue Park was born and raised in Illinois. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she has been writing poems and stories since she was four years old. Park was first published when she was nine years old—she was paid one dollar for a haiku that ran in a children’s magazine.   During elementary and high school, Park had several more poems published in magazines for children and young people. She studied English at Stanford University and then she took a job as a public-relations writer for a major oil company. This was not exactly the kind of writing she wanted to do, but it did teach her to present her work professionally and that an interested writer can make any subject fascinating. Somewhere between living in Ireland, England, and the United States; teaching English as a second language and working as a food journalist; and starting a family; Park finally realized that what she really wanted to do was to write books for children. Park lives in upstate New York with her husband, their two children, a dog, a hamster, and eight tadpoles.  For more information on Linda Sue Park, visit her at www.lindasuepark.com View titles by Linda Sue Park
© Deborah Hopkinson
Deborah Hopkinson is the author of award-winning books for children and teens including Sky Boys, The Great Trouble, A Bandit's Tale, and A Letter to My Teacher. She visits schools across the country and lives in Oregon. View titles by Deborah Hopkinson

24 July 1527

 

 

 

The world is still dark beyond my window, but I can make out the tall figure of my husband, King Henry VIII of England, in the stable yard below. Beside him stands his lover, the torchlight glowing on her smooth, young skin. They are readying to ride out. Just the two of them. Together.

 

I watch as he helps her up into her saddle, lifts her easily, holds her. For a moment, he cradles her little leather boot in his hand, caressing it tenderly, before making sure it is safe in the stirrup. My breath snags.

 

She laughs playfully, flirting, her eyes never leaving his as she places a hand on his upturned face.

 

I sink into a chair. “Madre de Dios, ayudadame,” I whisper. Mother of God, help me.

 

My lady Maud Parr comes into the room. She looks startled to see me. “Your Grace, what are you doing up so early?” she asks.

 

“Sleep is impossible.” I pick up my sewing, a shirt I am embroidering for Henry.

 

Maud sits across from me. “I must tell you something,” she says.

 

I try very hard to listen. But the memory of Henry laughing with Anne, of him holding her in his arms, blots out everything else.

 

“Your Grace?” Maud says.

 

I blink. “Please, begin again.”

 

I slip my hands inside the sleeves of my husband’s shirt as she gathers herself to tell me about the letter Cardinal Wolsey has sent to His Holiness in Rome. In it the cardinal claims I was not a virgin when I married Henry. That I made love with his brother, Prince Arthur, when he was my husband, and that I lied about it. That I am lying about it still. That because of my treachery, my marriage to Henry is not a true union.

 

The cardinal is appealing to the Pope to declare Henry’s and my eighteen years together illegal. He is entreating the Pope to grant the King permission to marry again.

 

Maud pauses before telling me the rest.

 

Perhaps, she wonders, the cardinal felt he needed to make a stronger case against me, because in the same letter he accuses me of being a sex-crazed woman who lured Henry into a forbidden marriage to satisfy my carnal pleasures.

 

Me!

 

And then--¡por Dios!--the cardinal tells His Holiness that my husband finds me too repulsive to sleep with because my sex organs are diseased. He says Henry has vowed never to use my body again; that it is too dangerous to his royal person; that lying with me will make the King sick.

 

I push the shirt’s long sleeves up my arms and rub my face against its fine linen. Cardinal Wolsey is the King’s closest advisor. He cannot have written such lies without my husband’s consent.

 

How can Henry hate me so?

 

I remember our wedding night, the feel of his hands on my trembling skin; the hot, stinging pain of our first loving; the blissful relief of lying in his strong, steady arms, a true wife at last.

 

I pull my hands free of the shirt and lay it across my lap. I know Henry better than anyone else, certainly better than Anne Boleyn, for I have known him as a boy and a man; as a brother and a husband. Our destinies have been entwined almost since birth.

 

“I was betrothed in marriage to the Prince of Wales when I was but a child of three,” I say.

 

“Indeed?” replies Maud.

 

I nod. “As Princess of Spain, I was a flesh-and-blood treaty, a breathing alliance between our two countries. And when I was fifteen I sailed to England to become his wife, and the future Queen.”

 

Maud gets up and pours us both a small cup of wine. “I would have liked to have known you then, Your Grace.”

 

“Oh, I was so young, and so sorry to leave my mother and my home. But it was God’s will that I go. I had unshakable confidence in Him--that He had favoured me and destined me for the greatest of things. I had no doubt that I would carry out my sacred obligation to fill the royal nursery with babies, most especially boys--heirs for the Tudor line.” I pause. “It was la voluntad de Dios, the will of God, you see.”

 

Maud nods with sympathy.

 

“But now the King has decided to rid himself of me. What can I do to stop him? Henry always gets what he wants. He takes it as his divine right.”

 

I cover my eyes with my hand. “Oh, Maud, after all these years of marriage, is it truly God’s will that it now be over?”

 

It is a question without answer.

 

In silence we drink our wine as the sun creeps slowly in through the windows, and my life unwinds before me like a spool of embroidery thread.

Educator Guide for Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All

Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

  • AWARD
    Illinois Reads
  • NOMINEE | 2021
    New York State Charlotte Award
  • SELECTION | 2019
    Amelia Bloomer List Recommended Title
  • SELECTION | 2019
    Texas TAYSHAS High School Reading List
  • SELECTION | 2019
    Illinois Reads
"Romance and intrigue dominate these accounts, as do the frustrations of being female in a time when 'no woman--not even a Queen--can... show her own power'..."—Shelf Awareness, starred review

About

Perfect for anyone playing the Six soundtrack on repeat who wants to discover more about the six wives of Henry VIII! This is an edge-of-your-seat reimagining of the romance and tragedy that defined them, told from multiple points of view by award-winning and bestselling authors.

If you were one of King Henry VIII's six wives, who would you be? Would you be Anne Boleyn, who literally lost her head? The subject of rumor and scandal like Catherine Howard? Or would you survive like Anna of Cleves?
     Meet all Henry's queens--each bound for divorce or death--in this epic novel that reads like fantasy but really happened. Watch spellbound as each wife attempts to survive their unpredictable king as he grows more obsessed with producing a male heir. And discover how the power-hungry court fanned the flames of Henry's passions . . . and his most horrible impulses.
     Brought to life by seven award-winning and bestselling authors, here is an intimate look at the royals during one of the most treacherous times in history, perfect for anyone fascinated by Britain's Royal Family or Netflix's The Crown.

"Ambitious and exciting." --Bustle

"These stories of love, lust, power and intrigue never fail to fascinate." --Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

Who's Who:

M. T. Anderson - Henry VIII
Candace Fleming - Katharine of Aragon, wife #1
Stephanie Hemphill - Anne Boleyn, wife #2
Lisa Ann Sandell - Jane Seymour, wife #3
Jennifer Donnelly - Anna of Cleves, wife #4
Linda Sue Park - Catherine Howard, wife #5
Deborah Hopkinson - Kateryn Parr, wife #6

Author

© Erin Thompson
M. T. Anderson has written a wide variety of titles, including works of fantasy and satire for a range of ages. Anderson grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts. He was educated in English literature at Harvard University and Cambridge University, and went on to receive his MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University.

M. T. Anderson is the author of a number of celebrated books including the Thrilling Tales series, as well as The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1, The Pox Party, which won the National Book Award and a Printz Honor, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves, which also won a Printz Honor. Feed was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the L.A. Times Book Award for YA fiction in 2003 and was a finalist for the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award.

M. T. Anderson currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. View titles by M. T. Anderson
© Scott Fleming
Candace Fleming is the prolific and versatile award-winning author of many books for children and young adults. Her most recent title, The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh, received six starred reviews, was a Kirkus, PW, Booklist, and SLJ Best Book of the Year, and was hailed by the Wall Street Journal as a "fascinating chronicle." Candace's The Family Romanov also received six starred reviews and won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was recognized as a Sibert Nonfiction Honor Book. Amelia Lost received four starred reviews and won the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction. Her many acclaimed picture books include Giant Squid, a Sibert Honor Book. Visit her on the web at candacefleming.com. View titles by Candace Fleming
© VanDoren Photography
Because in her journals, letters, and fiction, Sylvia un-bandages wounds and wonders that most people don’t want to admit exist. Because she tells dangerous truths. “This is what it is like to be complete. It is horrible.”

Sylvia forges through the crests and the crashes of self-examination for us on her pages. Her writing binds me to her, close, under her skull and skin. And I think that may be one of the primary things great writing can do– become your companion.

And what an insightful companion she is! Tossing off lines like “The courage of a shut mouth, in spite of artillery!” When I read, “It was a place of force—the wind gagging my mouth with my own blown hair,” her expression of my own experiences seemed uncanny. I have lived in that boxed space of being in a relationship with someone by choice and yet feeling that I had no choice but to stay, as I had willingly put myself in that cage. And yet when I wrote about this, my own words did not express my feelings as well as Sylvia had. She understood me, and said it best.

Sylvia even writes with clarity about not being able to write. In some sense almost everyone has experienced the dreadful blank page, the cursor blinking on an empty document, the e-mail that you just don’t know how to begin. Fingers drum the keyboard, but can’t depress any letters. Sylvia’s journals keep me company when this happens. She too, even though she wrote voluminously, struggled with feeling empty and unable to push a pen across paper. And when she couldn’t write, like me, she turned to baked goods! Sylvia created them, while I only consume them, but still I feel we have this in common.

So why did I write this book, now? Others have already written Sylvia’s biography. Sylvia’s own daughter has expressed the opinion that people should leave the story of hermother’s life alone. How then could I justify writing this book? Why should I convey how I see Sylvia’s life?

Honestly, part of writing Your Own, Sylvia was a willful denial on my part of what I was undertaking. How could I possibly write a whole book of poems about Sylvia Plath? They would never hold up under the weight of her talent. But somehow I let that go. I thought about the first time I came to Plath in the classroom. I knew little about her life, not much beyond the fact that she killed herself. And although I admired her writing, I could not initially see its depth. Sylvia’s work seemed difficult, purposely obtuse, and so I dismissed pieces of hers as remote and even cold. But learning about her life helped me to unpack various themes and metaphors that would otherwise have remained closed to me. Instead of being cold, I saw that Sylvia’s writing borders on frenzy at times. She holds her work close to her and you feel its heat and impact. I don’t think it always follows that knowing a writer’s biography is essential to understanding their work, but the knowledge I gained about Sylvia’s life as I researched and wrote this book enhanced my experience of her writing. I had always loved her poems’ fabulous opening lines, such as: “Viciousness in the kitchen,”-Lesbos ;“Stasis in darkness,”-Ariel; and “Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts”-Poppies in October. When I found out what was going on in Sylvia’s life at the time she penned each of these lines, the words resonated with even greater impact. My book offers a window into Sylvia’s life in the hopes of helping readers appreciate her writing more fully.

Sylvia published her first poem at eight and wrote until her last days, creating astonishing work whether she was serene, joyful, or in crisis. Her writing captivates and inspires me. She is a friend that is always there on the bookshelf when I need her, with a great line, a brilliant sentence, to pull me through. I wish that her own words could have done the same for her. And I hope my book leads you to her. View titles by Stephanie Hemphill
Lisa Ann Sandell is the author, most recently, of A Map of the Known World, which Publishers Weekly called "poetic" in a starred review; Song of the Sparrow; and The Weight of the Sky, called "lovely" and "poignant" by Kirkus Reviews. She is also an editor of children's books. She lives in New York City. Visit Lisa Ann Sandell on the Web at lisaannsandell.com. View titles by Lisa Ann Sandell
© Doug Dundas
Jennifer Donnelly is the author of the adult novels The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, and The Wild Rose, as well as the young adult novels These Shallow GravesRevolution, and A Northern Light, winner of Britain's prestigious Carnegie Medal, the LA Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature, and a Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award. She lives and writes full-time in Upstate New York. You can visit her at jenniferdonnelly.com or follow @JenWritesBooks on Twitter. View titles by Jennifer Donnelly
© Klaus Pollmeier
Linda Sue Park was born and raised in Illinois. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she has been writing poems and stories since she was four years old. Park was first published when she was nine years old—she was paid one dollar for a haiku that ran in a children’s magazine.   During elementary and high school, Park had several more poems published in magazines for children and young people. She studied English at Stanford University and then she took a job as a public-relations writer for a major oil company. This was not exactly the kind of writing she wanted to do, but it did teach her to present her work professionally and that an interested writer can make any subject fascinating. Somewhere between living in Ireland, England, and the United States; teaching English as a second language and working as a food journalist; and starting a family; Park finally realized that what she really wanted to do was to write books for children. Park lives in upstate New York with her husband, their two children, a dog, a hamster, and eight tadpoles.  For more information on Linda Sue Park, visit her at www.lindasuepark.com View titles by Linda Sue Park
© Deborah Hopkinson
Deborah Hopkinson is the author of award-winning books for children and teens including Sky Boys, The Great Trouble, A Bandit's Tale, and A Letter to My Teacher. She visits schools across the country and lives in Oregon. View titles by Deborah Hopkinson

Excerpt

24 July 1527

 

 

 

The world is still dark beyond my window, but I can make out the tall figure of my husband, King Henry VIII of England, in the stable yard below. Beside him stands his lover, the torchlight glowing on her smooth, young skin. They are readying to ride out. Just the two of them. Together.

 

I watch as he helps her up into her saddle, lifts her easily, holds her. For a moment, he cradles her little leather boot in his hand, caressing it tenderly, before making sure it is safe in the stirrup. My breath snags.

 

She laughs playfully, flirting, her eyes never leaving his as she places a hand on his upturned face.

 

I sink into a chair. “Madre de Dios, ayudadame,” I whisper. Mother of God, help me.

 

My lady Maud Parr comes into the room. She looks startled to see me. “Your Grace, what are you doing up so early?” she asks.

 

“Sleep is impossible.” I pick up my sewing, a shirt I am embroidering for Henry.

 

Maud sits across from me. “I must tell you something,” she says.

 

I try very hard to listen. But the memory of Henry laughing with Anne, of him holding her in his arms, blots out everything else.

 

“Your Grace?” Maud says.

 

I blink. “Please, begin again.”

 

I slip my hands inside the sleeves of my husband’s shirt as she gathers herself to tell me about the letter Cardinal Wolsey has sent to His Holiness in Rome. In it the cardinal claims I was not a virgin when I married Henry. That I made love with his brother, Prince Arthur, when he was my husband, and that I lied about it. That I am lying about it still. That because of my treachery, my marriage to Henry is not a true union.

 

The cardinal is appealing to the Pope to declare Henry’s and my eighteen years together illegal. He is entreating the Pope to grant the King permission to marry again.

 

Maud pauses before telling me the rest.

 

Perhaps, she wonders, the cardinal felt he needed to make a stronger case against me, because in the same letter he accuses me of being a sex-crazed woman who lured Henry into a forbidden marriage to satisfy my carnal pleasures.

 

Me!

 

And then--¡por Dios!--the cardinal tells His Holiness that my husband finds me too repulsive to sleep with because my sex organs are diseased. He says Henry has vowed never to use my body again; that it is too dangerous to his royal person; that lying with me will make the King sick.

 

I push the shirt’s long sleeves up my arms and rub my face against its fine linen. Cardinal Wolsey is the King’s closest advisor. He cannot have written such lies without my husband’s consent.

 

How can Henry hate me so?

 

I remember our wedding night, the feel of his hands on my trembling skin; the hot, stinging pain of our first loving; the blissful relief of lying in his strong, steady arms, a true wife at last.

 

I pull my hands free of the shirt and lay it across my lap. I know Henry better than anyone else, certainly better than Anne Boleyn, for I have known him as a boy and a man; as a brother and a husband. Our destinies have been entwined almost since birth.

 

“I was betrothed in marriage to the Prince of Wales when I was but a child of three,” I say.

 

“Indeed?” replies Maud.

 

I nod. “As Princess of Spain, I was a flesh-and-blood treaty, a breathing alliance between our two countries. And when I was fifteen I sailed to England to become his wife, and the future Queen.”

 

Maud gets up and pours us both a small cup of wine. “I would have liked to have known you then, Your Grace.”

 

“Oh, I was so young, and so sorry to leave my mother and my home. But it was God’s will that I go. I had unshakable confidence in Him--that He had favoured me and destined me for the greatest of things. I had no doubt that I would carry out my sacred obligation to fill the royal nursery with babies, most especially boys--heirs for the Tudor line.” I pause. “It was la voluntad de Dios, the will of God, you see.”

 

Maud nods with sympathy.

 

“But now the King has decided to rid himself of me. What can I do to stop him? Henry always gets what he wants. He takes it as his divine right.”

 

I cover my eyes with my hand. “Oh, Maud, after all these years of marriage, is it truly God’s will that it now be over?”

 

It is a question without answer.

 

In silence we drink our wine as the sun creeps slowly in through the windows, and my life unwinds before me like a spool of embroidery thread.

Guides

Educator Guide for Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All

Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

Awards

  • AWARD
    Illinois Reads
  • NOMINEE | 2021
    New York State Charlotte Award
  • SELECTION | 2019
    Amelia Bloomer List Recommended Title
  • SELECTION | 2019
    Texas TAYSHAS High School Reading List
  • SELECTION | 2019
    Illinois Reads

Praise

"Romance and intrigue dominate these accounts, as do the frustrations of being female in a time when 'no woman--not even a Queen--can... show her own power'..."—Shelf Awareness, starred review

2024 Middle and High School Collections

The Penguin Random House Education Middle School and High School Digital Collections feature outstanding fiction and nonfiction from the children’s, adult, DK, and Grupo Editorial divisions, as well as publishers distributed by Penguin Random House. Peruse online or download these valuable resources to discover great books in specific topic areas such as: English Language Arts,

Read more

PRH Education High School Collections

All reading communities should contain protected time for the sake of reading. Independent reading practices emphasize the process of making meaning through reading, not an end product. The school culture (teachers, administration, etc.) should affirm this daily practice time as inherently important instructional time for all readers. (NCTE, 2019)   The Penguin Random House High

Read more

PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

Translanguaging is a communicative practice of bilinguals and multilinguals, that is, it is a practice whereby bilinguals and multilinguals use their entire linguistic repertoire to communicate and make meaning (García, 2009; García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017)   It is through that lens that we have partnered with teacher educators and bilingual education experts, Drs.

Read more