Grade 2-4-This British import breaks no new ground. In 18 heavily illustrated pages, most of what is known of Shakespeare's life is touched on chronologically with brief glimpses of the Elizabethan theatre and court life. A few of the major plays are described. While the full-color drawings do provide some useful architectural detail, especially of the Globe, they are cluttered and have a textbook look. The information is accurate and the text is friendly if undistinguished. Working with the same severely limited number of facts available to all biographers of Shakespeare, Middleton has chosen to fictionalize to fill in some gaps. In Bard of Avon (Morrow, 1992), still the benchmark Shakespeare biography for young readers, Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema used the scarcity of information to explain how scholars work. In so doing, they created a much more interesting book.
Sally Margolis, Barton Public Library, VT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"In 18 heavily illustrated pages, most of what is known of Shakespeare's life is touched on chronologically with brief glimpses of the Elizabethan theater and court life.... The information is accurate and the text is friendly."--School Library Journal
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