Customer Reviews

Bravo, Mr. William Shakespeare!

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As the table of contents, disguised as a playbill, informs the reader, "The Globe Theatre is proud to present a new season of Mr. William Shakespeare's plays." So come one, come all and take your seats as author, Marcia Williams, presents seven famous plays, As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard III, Twelfth Night, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing, in comic book format. Each "performance" is broken down into three parts: Shakespeare's actual words, spoken by the actors on stage, the plot of the story told in crisp, clear and uncomplicated text beneath the pictures and the often amusing and sometimes important remarks made by the audience as they watch. The illustrations of each play are colorful, easy to follow and packed with marvelous detail that catches the readers' eye and propels the story forward. Bravo, Mr William Shakespeare is a wonderful and enjoyable introduction to the Bard's plays that takes you back to their original setting at the Globe, in the mid-1500s and is an evocative experience that's sure to whet the appetite of young readers. "The audience is asked to refrain from throwing hard objects at the performers. Rotten fruit only, please. Beware of pickpockets!" Read, learn and enjoy!

This is a great book, but it is EXACTLY the same book as another of Marcia William's titles, "More Tales From Shakespeare." We had all three of her Shakespeare titles on my daughter's wishlist, and she got all three as gifts; the two books are identical, except for the title! There is NO mention of this anywhere I could see (well, I admit I didn't read the publisher's or amazon's details, so I could be wrong)--so we'll be returning the duplicate! Great book though. We have several of Marcia Williams' books. I love that they familiarize kids with stories, plays, myths, etc (that we hope they'll read in full later in life) in a fun "comic book" format, but use actual quotes from the originals in the cartoon frames. Fun to read, and it's giving my daughter an appetite for good literature!

Would you believe I recently shared "As You Like It" with my second and third grade second language learners and it was a huge success. They were enthused about the plot and the characters from the first reading, they never got bored. I guess it says something about Shakespeare's writing.

We ended up doing a little rewriting and turned it into a reader's theater, I don't think Shakespeare would be too upset with our adaptation.
We're presenting it with a cast of sixteen next week, hope "we break a leg."
It's amazing to here the children talk about Rosalind and "Ganymeade', as well as the evil duke and the happenings in the Forest of Arden.Lets see if this stays tucked away in their young memories when they have to study the bard in high school and college.

Book is great from young and old alike. Our ninth grade students think it's absolutely "cool" and seem to enjoy getting the extensive and in-depth info on Shakespeare in a light-hearted and entertaining format of colorful graphics and "to the point" wording.