Romeo and Juliet [Hardcover]

Bruce Coville (Author), Dennis Nolan (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Joining Bruce Coville's earlier prose adaptations of Shakespeare's plays is this picture book treatment of the Bard's most popular work ever. The tender story of the young star-crossed lovers from warring families, Romeo and Juliet has moved audiences to tears for four hundred years. And Coville tells it in a way that will surely whet the appetite of young audiences, who will then find even greater enjoyment in the original. As with his earlier adaptations, Coville expertly combines his own dramatic language with key lines from the play. Dennis Nolan, who illustrated Coville's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, contributes stunning paintings, including a gatefold of the famous balcony scene.

In addition to A Midsummer Night's Dream, which Publishers Weekly called "A first rate entree to the Bard," Coville also retold The Tempest and Macbeth. Of the latter, School Library Journal said, "Coville's muscular sentences, full of dramatic word choices, make this a good read-aloud." Both Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream were honored as ALA Quick Picks for Young Adults.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-A well-told prose adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy. Using such language as, "The barest hint of moonlight dusted Verona's streets-," Coville captures the feel of Shakespeare's poetic verse, and includes many of the most famous lines of the play in the characters' dialogue. Occasionally, some of this dialogue has been altered, e.g., Juliet's "Deny thy father and refuse thy name" becomes the less flowing "Discard thy name," and Mercutio's "The slip, sire, the slip" becomes "Romeo, you gave us the slip last night," but such changes, while distracting to purists, enhance the comprehension for modern-day readers. The colored-pencil and watercolor illustrations are a perfect complement to this retelling. Paying scant attention to background details, the artist instead captures the essence of the scenes through vibrant facial expressions, focusing on the tender spirit of the young lovers and the explosive anger of their feuding relatives. One of the loveliest drawings, and one of the most striking features of the book, is that of the balcony scene, which unfolds vertically. Written in simpler prose than Charles and Mary Lamb's classic Tales from Shakespeare (Random, 1986) yet more poetic than Marchette Chute's Stories from Shakespeare (Meridian, 1959) or Jennifer Mulherin's "Shakespeare for Everyone" series (Silver Burdett), Coville and Nolan's collaboration is sure to win votes from readers who are looking for something romantic yet more substantive than the standard teen fare. A definite boost to both public and school Shakespearean collections.
Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Dial; 1st edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803724624
• ISBN-13: 978-0803724624
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #661,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bruce Coville was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1950. His family lived in farm territory, about twenty miles north of Syracuse. Bruce grew up around the corner from his grandparents' dairy farm, where he spent a great deal of time as a child, dodging cows and chores to the best of his ability. As a young reader he loved Mary Poppins and Dr. Dolittle, and still has fond memories of rising ahead of the rest of his family so he could huddle in a chair and read THE VOYAGES OF DR. DOLITTLE. He also read lots of things that people consider junk (Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and zillions of comic books). His only real regret is the time he spent watching television, when he could have been reading instead. (A mind is a terrible thing to waste!)

His first book, THE FOOLISH GIANT, was published in 1978. It was illustrated by his wife, Katherine, whom he had married in 1969. This was followed in 1979 by SARAH'S UNICORN, also illustrated by Katherine. After a long period of working separately, the Covilles began collaborating again with SPACE BRAT and GOBLINS IN THE CASTLE, both published in 1992.

Before getting published Bruce earned his living as a toymaker, a gravedigger, a cookware salesman, an assembly line worker, and finally as an elementary school teacher (second and fourth grades). He left teaching in 1981 to devote himself to becoming a full time writer - though it took another five years to achieve that goal!)

Bruce has published nearly 100 books, which have appeared in over a dozen countries around the world and sold more than sixteen million copies. Among his most popular titles are MY TEACHER IS AN ALIEN, INTO THE LAND OF THE UNICORNS, and THE MONSTER'S RING. In 2001 he founded Full Cast Audio, an audiobook company dedicated to creating unabridged, full cast recordings of the best in children's and young adult literature.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for children of all ages!, April 15, 2005

By 

ReaderMomTeacher (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Romeo and Juliet (Hardcover)

My 5th grade students reading the original R&J love this version for the simplicity of the language, to help them understand difficult parts of the original text, and for the phenomenal illustrations. The girls are especially interested, and wait for a turn to read the book. My own 4 and 5 year old children love the book, and ask to have it read to them every night at bedtime. They don't seem at all bothered by the death scene at the end, which did worry me at the first reading. I also highly recommend the same team's version of Midsummer Night's Dream for the same reasons, both 5th graders and preschoolers love them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lush retelling, May 1, 2005

By 

Camille "at the BookMoot!" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Romeo and Juliet (Hardcover)

Author Bruce Coville is doing his part to bring Shakespeare to modern day "groundlings" by publishing beautiful picture book editions of the plays. Junior high and high school libraries would do well to include these books in their collections. This version of Romeo and Juliet has lovely and romantic illustrations by Dennis Nolan. My favorite is the balconey scene which folds out vertically and shows Juliet at the top of the page and Romeo is looking up at her from the bottom. The vertical height is emphasized by the vertical fold-up.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Intro To Play, March 30, 2008

By 

T. Mikesell (Chubbuck, ID United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Romeo and Juliet (Hardcover)

My 9th grade students were having a very hard time understanding this play. After reading the first act, I went looking for something that could help them get into it. I read them this version of it, and it really helped them visualize it and really established the storyline for them. They did much better after that. I think it's a great book if you want to know the storyline or want a way to visualize the story; I don't think it replaces an actual reading of Shakespeare's play (what could?).