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Something Rich and Strange: A treasury of Shakespeare's Verse
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 31, 2023
4.5 stars
Like most treasuries of poetry, this book is not really best suited for reading in one sitting. We have used this quite a bit at home to introduce the pleasures of Shakespearean language to our children. The kids have selected passages to memorize and recite, and when they read about a play, then they enjoy looking for passages from it in this book. I don't particularly love the illustrations, but I do not hate them.
I highly recommend this treasury along with A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories, which beautifully illustrates and simply retells several Shakespeare plays. Together these do very well as resources for introducing children to Shakespeare. Of course, if you want to bring it to the next level, check out Ken Ludwig's How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare or, one of my kids' favorites, the gimmicky Shakespeare Insult Generator
Like most treasuries of poetry, this book is not really best suited for reading in one sitting. We have used this quite a bit at home to introduce the pleasures of Shakespearean language to our children. The kids have selected passages to memorize and recite, and when they read about a play, then they enjoy looking for passages from it in this book. I don't particularly love the illustrations, but I do not hate them.
I highly recommend this treasury along with A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories, which beautifully illustrates and simply retells several Shakespeare plays. Together these do very well as resources for introducing children to Shakespeare. Of course, if you want to bring it to the next level, check out Ken Ludwig's How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare or, one of my kids' favorites, the gimmicky Shakespeare Insult Generator
February 19, 2019
I picked this book up at the library because I like to read poetry to the children and I enjoy the art work of Emma Chichester Clark. And we enjoyed the pictures.
This book is made up of quotations from Shakespeare's works that are arranged thematically. I like the idea but I found that the actuality left something to be desired. Shakespeare's work does not often rhyme and if you are unfamiliar with the passage it can be hard to read it properly so that the underlying rhythm comes through. Also, his language is from a very long time ago. These quotes -- some of them no more than a line or two -- are given without any of the context of setting and speakers and scene that make it easier to understand what is happening. I know that the children didn't understand even half of these passages that I was reading to them and I had trouble with them myself.
I'm not sure if this is a bad book or if we are just not the right audience for it. But it's a picture book, done with drawings, so it seems that it should be for reading out loud to children and at that it failed.
This book is made up of quotations from Shakespeare's works that are arranged thematically. I like the idea but I found that the actuality left something to be desired. Shakespeare's work does not often rhyme and if you are unfamiliar with the passage it can be hard to read it properly so that the underlying rhythm comes through. Also, his language is from a very long time ago. These quotes -- some of them no more than a line or two -- are given without any of the context of setting and speakers and scene that make it easier to understand what is happening. I know that the children didn't understand even half of these passages that I was reading to them and I had trouble with them myself.
I'm not sure if this is a bad book or if we are just not the right audience for it. But it's a picture book, done with drawings, so it seems that it should be for reading out loud to children and at that it failed.
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September 12, 2019This book is a selection of Shakespeare's poetry that has been illustrated to suit children. Each poem is a couple of pages long, which makes it ideal to read and analyse a poem in detail with children.
I would reccomend this book to use in year 4 and 5 classes as it uses some complicated, unfamiliar sixteenth century language. However, these words are being represented through illustrations, which helps children decipher the meanings.
This book would be beneficial to use in support to teaching about Shakespeare. It would be an ideal guide to enable children to understand play or poem writing in English lessons. It would be a good cross-curricular link to history, children could research life in the sixteenth century and possibly create a word bank of the language people used-found in the poems.
I would reccomend this book to use in year 4 and 5 classes as it uses some complicated, unfamiliar sixteenth century language. However, these words are being represented through illustrations, which helps children decipher the meanings.
This book would be beneficial to use in support to teaching about Shakespeare. It would be an ideal guide to enable children to understand play or poem writing in English lessons. It would be a good cross-curricular link to history, children could research life in the sixteenth century and possibly create a word bank of the language people used-found in the poems.
May 20, 2024
Selections from the Bard's many plays, gathered under thematic titles and wonderfully illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark. I would have savored this book as a child, led on to the words by those illustrations.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews