SHAKESPEARE'S SECRET by Elise Broach Accelerated Reader: Level: 4.0. Pts. 6. Number of Multiple Choice Questions on Quiz: 10. Take the Quiz! Book Description: As usual, sixth-grader Hero's Shakespearean name prompts teasing in her new school, and her loving parents are clueless about her difficulties. Then intriguing, elderly neighbor Mrs. Roth tells her about the enormous diamond rumored to be hidden in Hero's new house. Helped by Mrs. Roth and cute eighth-grader Danny, Hero launches into a stealthy search that unearths links between the diamond's original owner and Edward de Vere, a nobleman believed by some to be the original author of Shakespeare's plays. Broach is an Elizabethan scholar, and she follows the story's detailed historical references with an endnote that further explains the true, fascinating debate about de Vere. The frequent Shakespearean quotes often feel purposeful, and the connections between clues seem too far reaching. But Broach writes with an assured sense of family dynamics and middle-school anxieties, and sophisticated readers will appreciate the true emotions, the rich language, and the revelations of many-layered mysteries that tie the past to the present.