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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 822.912
EAN: 9780897334853
ISBN: 089733485X
Label: Academy Chicago Publishers
Manufacturer: Academy Chicago Publishers
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 117
Publication Date: 2000-12
Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Studio: Academy Chicago Publishers

In her touching introduction to this collection, Britain's beloved children's author E. Nesbit shares with us her very personal inspiration for The Children's Shakespeare. As a writer, she understood that the stories are the least part of Shakespeare, but as a mother she also understood the need for simplicity. Her daughters were far too young to handle such complex language, yet certainly they must be capable of appreciating, indeed enjoying, the stories hidden within.

Envisioning this simplified introduction to works such as The Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Taming of the Shrew-eleven plays in all-E. Nesbit set out to make them more accessible to young readers without sacrificing any essential elements. For if the stories were stripped of their wit and humor, of their emotion, the children would be no more entertained by them than by the indecipherable originals.

In the end, under E. Nesbit's gifted pen, these stories emerged with all the charm and grace of the very best fairy tales. Written in thoroughly modern English and each no more than ten pages in length, the eleven plays featured in this volume afford children the opportunity to discover for themselves the magic of Shakespeare.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Shakespeare for kids fun for any age
Review: This book is loads of fun! I bought it for my third grader, who is taking a field trip to see "Romeo and Juliet." I wanted him to have some familiarity with the storyline so he wouldn't be yawning cluelessly by the end of Act I. He loved it so much he wanted to discuss it! Even my husband who hates to read the stuff enjoyed it.
In short, the book is well done. It shortens the plays into a very long story-summary without the dramatic language that can be somewhat of a distraction. We're not talking Cliff's Notes here folks. This is just a handful of pages per play written on a level anyone can understand and enjoy. The book is not long so it's not intimidating. (Have you seen any books containing Shakespeare's complete works, lately? Mine could be used for a doorstop! It's huge!)
We paired this book with the comedy of "The Reduced Shakespeare Company's" version of Romeo and Juliet. My son is actually looking forward to the trip!

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Fantastic introduction to Shakespeare for younger children
Review: I read and reread this book as a youth. The stories read much like classic fairy tales with tragedy, irony, and moral lessons. The writing is very accessible and encouraged me to seek out the full length "stories" in their original (play script) form once I was old enough (6th/7th grade) to really read them.

For a child who has a love of literature, these retellings of the great plays may start a life-long interest in Shakespeare's art (as they did for me).

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Lorenzo Schiavo and Felipe Gravier
Review: Romeo and Juliet

Felipe Gravier and Lorenzo Schiavo review:

We think that Romeo and Juliet tells the story of two star-crossed lovers whose families are in a terrible fight which prevents them from coming together. How far the couple will go to be together becomes the focus of the story. Of his richest poetry. The opening and closing choruses are some of his most outstanding work. Romeo's It is a brilliant love story but not much more. It still possesses however some wooing of Juliet is fabulously written. The Friar gets the best lines. Mercutio is one the best friends of Romeo. It is not as good as Shakespeare has written but it's still a fabulous book and up there with his best work. One part of the play we didn't like was that for the tow families get arrange there two kids had to die.
The English language wasn't finally finished so Shakespeare had the liberty to create words and play with the language, as he liked. That's why It was so difficult to understand what each character wanted to express so the teacher had to explain us each of that words and teach us all the words in that age and told us which were the words in the English of today.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Interesting Storys
Review: This book provides lots of Shakespeare's Storys like "A Midsummer's Night Dream" and "Hamlet" with a children's fairy tale twist. The storys are the same as Shakespeare's, but easier for children to understand. My favorite story was Hamlet because I had just seen the play. A while after we read Children's Shakespeare and it helped me to understand Hamlet better.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Shakespeare is for children too!
Review: Shakespeare is for kids and adults in E. Nesbit's creative mind. I always liked fairy tales, but I couldn't read Shakespeare very well. In Children's Shakespeare E. Nesbit turned his work into fairy tales without changing the story and morals. This book is not much like Nesbit's other books because it was written by Shakespeare, but I bet there are some simularities.

This book was a overall well writen book and I beleive E. Nesbit put a lot of hard work into her books in her life-time. I'm sure if she were alive now she would still be writing good books to this day.

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