Shakespeare Can Be Fun Books displayed at the Utah Shakespeare Festival gift shop.
I’ve often heard it’s better to see the works of Shakespeare performed than to merely read them. But Shakespeare plots aren’t always easy to follow, so a bit of pre-performance reading can make understanding his stories easier on viewers young and old.
I hit the gift shop in search of books about Shakespeare for youth during my last visit to the Utah Shakespeare Festival, figuring they knew better than most which books were spot on for introducing kids to Shakespeare. Here’s what I discovered…
A series of books called “Playing with Plays” features several Shakespeare titles — including “Romeo and Juliet,” “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Julius Caesar,” “Twelfth Night” and “Much Ado About Nothing.” They’ve even got a nifty website complete with Shakespeare insult generator, iambic pentameter lesson plans and insights about helping students with special needs experience Shakespeare.
A series of Shakespeare retellings by Bruce Coville — which includes “The Tempest,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Macbeth,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “Twelfth Night,” and “The Winter’s Tale.” Each couple’s Coville’s prose with “essential lines” from Shakespeare’s works — and includes rich illustrations.
A series of books called “Shakespeare Can Be Fun” — which includes “A Child’s Portrait of Shakespeare” in addition to “Macbeth,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “The Tempest,” “Twelfth Night” and “Hamlet.”
A series of books called “The Young Reader’s Shakespeare” featuring four titles by Adam McKeown — “Macbeth,” “Julius Caesar,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Othello” — which also include beautiful illustrations.
Also “Shakespeare’s Seasons” by Miriam Weiner, “Poetry for Young People: William Shakespeare” edited by Dawn Scott Kastan and Marina Kastan, “Shakespeare’s Quill” (part of the “Stories of Great People” series) by Gerry Bailey and Karen Foster, and “Tales from Shakespeare” featuring seven plays presented by Marcia Williams.
Kids introduced to Shakespeare early and often will learn to appreciate his stories long before peers who’ve never experienced Shakespeare’s works begin insisting that the Bard is boring or irrelevant.
— Lynn
Coming up: Children’s film festivals, Drama as storytelling
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