In this sequel to William S. and the Great Escape, William is now a Hardison and lives with his Aunt Fiona, a school teacher, who adopted William, Jancy, Trixie and Buddy.  Life is somewhat normal, and after a year, William decides to spend his summer in the city, auditioning for the role of Puck in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream.  His time is spent budy working on sets and lines and costumes,  yet his past somehow manages to worm its way back into his life, and not in a good way.  Snyder is a master at what she does.  This story is set in the 1930’s which is pretty much only demonstrated in the fact that kids didn’t have many rights at that time.  Being able to beat kids, threaten them, and intimidate them was behavior that, although not condoned, also wasn’t reported to authorities.  This story wouldn’t have stood up had it been written with a modern setting.  Also, having it take place so long ago slows the story down.  Conversations were done in person, face-to-face, with time in between to do some thinking.  Nowadays anything controversial is on YouTube immediately, or some other social media, which demands a different style of story.  Snyder gives you the opportunity to get to know the characters and do some thinking.