Tales from Shakespeare

by David Shannon (Illustrator), Shakespeare & Co., K. Nelson (Illustrator)

Ten of Shakespeare's most powerful, enduring plays are brilliantly retold here as great tales of love, jealousy, madness, comedy, vengeance, and heroics.

Noted Shakespearian expert, Tina Packer, Director of the premier theatre group, Shakespeare & Co, brings to life all the romance, clashing swords, dastardly plots, and hilarious comedies of 10 of Shakespeare's classic plays, retold as exciting, accessible stories and lavishly illustrated by 10 notable children's book illustrators. (See extended summary.)

Genres: Shakespeare, Classics, Childrens, Literature, Fiction, Poetry, Juvenile

192 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2004

About the author

David Shannon is the author and illustrator of many highly praised books for children. Born in Washington, D.C., he grew up in Spokane, Washington. He graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, with a fine arts degree, and then moved to New York City. His editorial illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, Time, and Rolling Stone, and his artwork has appeared on numerous book jackets. Shannon is a passionate baseball fan and softball player. He and his wife now live in Los Angeles.


David Shannon @ Scholastic

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated guide for children or anyone struggling to understand the plot before or after a production of a Shakespearean play. Ten plays with well-written summaries by different authors and illustrators, curated by Tina Packer, artistic director of Shakespeare & Company. I have had this book for awhile, but since my 14-year old is reading Midsummer Night's Dream in class, and recently saw a production (with me as willing and eager chaperone), he read Barry Moser's rendition of Macbeth and Gail De Marken's version of Midsummer. A lovely book to introduce The Bard to a new generation. Of course there are many such books, but this is a good one.

[Keelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Traditional Literature
Grade Level: 5-6
Awards: None
I would like to read plays from this book while we study the 16th and 17th century. I think it is important for students to familiarize themselves with Shakespeare because he is one of the greatest writers of all time. I would display a large poster with Shakespeare's picture on it and have each student find an interesting fact about Shakespeare to put on the board. I would then display this poster in my classroom.

[Todd Glaeser · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book to start a grade school student's love of Shakespeare. The artists are all amazing. Moser's Hamlet is my favorite today; tomorrow it could be a different one.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, I’ve got all the Shakespearean plays and the sonnets. But I didn’t have this! The cover has six illustrations from the stories within (how did the editors ever choose?) bracketed in strips of gold and bronze. The back is a watercolor image of the young Bard himself, quill in hand, as he muses over what he’ll write next. How could I resist?

Oh, what a treat for the sight this is! Ten Shakespearean plays are given the treatment by different famous illustrators, such as Leo and Diane Dillon, Mary Grandpré and Barry Moser, to name a few. Realistic, cartoonish, stark, colorful, monochromatic, old fashioned or contemporary, each illustrator brings her/his own vivid style to these famous tales of greed, ambition, love, murder and cross dressing. The pages for each play comes in a different color, too, further enhancing the aesthetic quirkiness of this book.

The plays are written in prose form for easy comprehension for the layman. So the main appeal is in the illustrations. You’ll undoubtedly have ones that you prefer. I know I did. This is a catch for the Shakespearean fan or anyone whose favorite illustrator might be in this book.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew! Three years to finish a book is my new record, beating out Oliver Twist. 😅

However, since there are ten comedies and tragedies here, we dipped into them in between other longer read-alouds. My 10 year old daughter felt Romeo & Juliet to be particularly tragic, with tears in her eyes at the end. I guess that’s arguably a sign of a good story. She skipped out only in on Hamlet, which my son was respectably entertained by at 12 years old.

All well done for the younger set, my only quibble is that the description of “lavishly illustrated” is misleading in my view. Each play has one lavish title page of illustration, and then is solid text for the entire play. I would have expected at least a few small illustrations throughout each play too in order to be “lavishly” done.

Now we’re all set to to read an actual midsummer nights dream picture book, before watching the play again this summer.

[Brittney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to Shakespeare! I read this book with my eleven year old, and she loved it. What a treat to see her excited about the different stories and discuss which ones are her favorites. Hearing her musings and thoughts about the various characters really made me realize how good she's getting at understanding stories and their various elements. If you have a love of Shakespeare and a kiddo who loves to read, then this book provides a lovely opportunity to bond and read together.

Likewise, if you have an adult loved one who wants to get into Shakespeare but feels overwhelmed, this would be a great resource. It really helps a person get to know the story and characters without all of the heavy language. It still uses a lot of the lines from the play but gives a lot of context to help the reader understand the words.

Overall, just a really wonderful book that will be enjoyed for years to come.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Packer does a great job of throwing in quotes, minimizing some of the more complicated stories' plots, and each of the 10 stories features one big beautiful detailed illustration to start it off. The book does also include a small bio of Shakespeare's life. It does also include a list of the players featured.

She caters the book to probably a third grade reading level. I have yet to find a good Shakespeare adaptation for kids under the age of 8.....

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book as an introduction to Shakespeare for middle grade students. I think that it has many of the plays that they will have to read about later. This gives them a good background about what the play is ultimately about. It pares down the majority of the characters so that it’s easier to understand. It leaves in many of the famous quotes that students will see later.

[Clara Biesel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice collection, with a singing introduction, and beautiful illustrations. For sure do this instead of Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, but if you're looking for my favorite prose retellings, I'd send you to the Garfield collections also on this "shakespeare for kids" tag.

[Jessi Morter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this with my 6 year old and although I’m aware she may not have “gotten” everything, she still was engaged and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Great option for introducing Shakespeare, getting to know the overall stories and language.

[Seth Birnbaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this to study up for Jeopardy. Pretty well done and concise while maintaining the spirit of the original plays.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much fun for adults, and an excellent introduction to Shakespeare for younger readers (10 and up?).

[Saima · Rating 3 out of 5]

10 of Shakespeare's plays with illustrations by Mary GrandPre and Kadir Nelson among others is an excellent introduction to these timeless plays for older kids.

[Mary Keroson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compilation of some of Shakespeare's writings. Chosen to read to meet a book with a subtitle, "Twelfth Night or What You Will".

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful edition of ten of Shakespeare's most popular plays. The synopses/stories are engagingly written by Tina Packer, and each play has been illustrated by a different artist. This is a book that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Reading the story before seeing the play is a great refresher.

[Jacqui Robbins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been looking a long time for a good kids' stories from Shakespeare collection that neither over-simplified nor made everything dry or baffling, AND that mimicked the language and had samplings of the actual verse, and here it is. My son is loving the stories and they are also beautifully illustrated.

[Jean-Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book to start off your children on Shakespeare. It includes retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, The Tempest, Othello, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and King Lear.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tina Packer writes summaries of major works. Well known illustrators add the pictures. Her slant on the stories in sgreat!

[Tracy Krauss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a beautiful book. It makes the stories come alive in an easy to understand way without compromising the integrity of the words.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful examples of Shakespeare to get students started on his writings.

[Annmarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tina Packer's narrative versions of these Shakespeare plays, which retain quite of bit of the language of the plays, are a great way to get young students interested in Shakespeare.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many little stories in this book and its reallygood!!:)