A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories: 12 Tales from the world's most famous playwright

World Full of...

by Angela McAllister, Alice Lindstrom (Illustrations)

Step on to a stage full of stories with this beautiful anthology of 12 stories from Shakespeare, retold to be accessible for children.

Get lost in Shakespeare’s most loved stories with this beautiful anthology of some of the most popular stories in the world. Introduce the children in your life to a collection of the most important stories every written , collected and retold by the much-loved author Angela McAllister. Featuring classics such as The Tempest , A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Romeo and Juliet , Hamlet , and Othello , each story is rewritten in a comprehensive way that is accessible for children. This perfectly sized anthology is stunningly illustrated by collage artist Alice Lindstrom whose incredible artwork makes these stories dance to life before your very eyes.
 
This lavish follow-up to A Year Full of Stories and A World Full of Animal Stories is the perfect gift for book lovers young and old.

The World Full of… series is a collection of beautiful hardcover story treasuries. Discover folktales from all around the world or be introduced to some of the world’s best-loved writers with these stunning gift books, the perfection addition to any child’s library.

Also available from the A Year Full of Stories , A World Full of Animal Stories , A World Full of Dickens Stories , A World Full of Spooky Stories , A Year Full of Celebrations and Festivals , and A Bedtime Full of Stories .

Genres: Shakespeare, Classics, Plays, Childrens, Fiction, Picture Books, Middle Grade

128 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2018

About the author

Angela McAllister is an award- winning author of over eighty books for children, including picture books, junior fiction, non-fiction and novels. Her work has been adapted for the stage and is widely used in schools. It has been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in the south of England.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, so I should start by admitting that I'm a very lazy and impatient reader. My job requires me to spend my days puzzling out and correcting very confusing writing, so when it comes to my pleasure reading, I don't tend to seek out challenging material for the sake of the challenge; I want to be entertained with minimal effort on my part.

As such, reading the antiquated language used by Shakespeare is not something I tend to think of as enjoyable. I did not like it when I was forced to read a few of his plays in high school, and I have carefully avoided any other of the Bard's work in its original form ever since.



But when I saw the gorgeous cover of A Stage Full of Shakespeare and read the blurb that touts "...this beautiful anthology of stories from Shakespeare, rewritten to be accessible to children aged 5+," I thought I might have found a relatively painless way to up my Shakespeare game.

I like picture books, and if this is accessible for a first-grader, then this should be easy-peasy for me, right? Well, as it turns out, maybe not. Although I liked some aspects of this book, for the most part this was an uneven miss for me.



As the book began, I was actually kind of disappointed with the illustrations. They weren't the rich and detailed images I was expecting based on the cover. Instead, I thought some of the pages were almost cartoonish, and many looked like crude drawings instead of the collages they were. It wasn't until I was well into the book that I could see the collage aspect more clearly and appreciated some of the illustrations more.



This anthology includes 12 of Shakespeare's best known works, and each begins with a page highlighting the important characters in that work with a brief description of who they are in relation to each other. I quite liked those pages and found myself wishing there were more helpful hints like that on the other pages.



For the most part the language is fairly straightforward, but since these are simplified versions of the stories, there are some details missing. As I'm not familiar with much Shakespeare at all, I was left scratching my head about what was going on some of the time, and I would have loved some extra explanations for certain aspects. Some sidebar features like "important history facts" or "vocabulary helper" or "phrases that originated with Shakespeare" would have helped me a great deal. I suspect these stories will work well for someone who is already familiar with the plays, but if you don't know the details, some of the ideas are pretty confusing.

I think this book will be welcomed by existing fans of Shakespeare and by young readers who do not ask too many questions about every aspect of a story. Although I question whether many 5 to 7-year-olds would be willing to listen to this book without demanding more details, those who are willing to just absorb what they're hearing and allow inference to fill in the blanks will probably think it's pretty good.

Thank you to NetGalley and Frances Lincoln Children's Books for providing me with a DRC of this book.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Ol’ Will might have been less intimidating to a scaredy first-year English lit student if there’d had been books such as this one laying around while growing up. That student may or may not have been me.

Studying English as a second language in my country does not involve learning about the contexts of the English literary tradition. It’s mostly based on grammar, vocabulary, and communications skills. And I think that is a shame. Majoring in English is a totally different matter, even so, that first semester of Shakespeare readings and exams was… well, a midwinter nightmare!

I’ve been teaching English for many years now and, most of the times, with my younger, more enthusiast pupils I do it by way of stories, and so here is where books like A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories come in handy.

I was expecting the author to have adapted into prose form only the fun, lighter plays of The Bard of Avon, such as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “As You Like It,” or “The Tempest,” but no, this collection includes tragedies as well: “King Lear,” “Macbeth,” and even “Julius Caesar.” I think the point of this book is to acquaint young readers with Shakespeare’s tricky plots and diverse characters.

Alice Lindstrom’s illustrations are vibrant and truly delightful. At the beginning of each story, there is a decorated title page with a quote from Shakespeare’s corresponding play, followed by one with portraits of the cast of characters. Then there are up to four or five astonishing page-filling illustrations portraying significant moments in the stories. They might seem rather puerile, almost caricatural to our critical, grown-up eyes, but I am sure the children will find them highly amusing!

Angela McAllister’s book makes for an amazing conversation starter, as the author didn’t gloss over murders, scheming, and betrayals. This is without a doubt a perfect introduction to the works of a literary genius: they can be read aloud in class to the students or even have them read the stories in role play activities, with the teacher as narrator. In your home library, the cover alone will make children and adults alike pick this one up and flip through its colourful pages!

*Thanks to NetGalley & Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Children’s Books for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

[Mel (Epic Reading) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really struggling to imagine an age group that could be defined as 'child' that would be appropriate for Shakespeare stories. Let's face it, Shakespeare isn't just difficult to read in it's original format; but also the death, romance, betrayal, etc. is fairly adult. Maybe an advanced child of 10 or older would like this? Maybe.

Illustrations & Format
There is one lovely part of this book which is the cute illustrations and the over sized format of the pages. However I do wish the layout was broken into a couple columns to make the text less daunting. And the over sized format while fun (and in hardcover this book is heavy!) would be very awkward for most bookshelves. This feels like one of those books meant for a coffee table to spark a conversation. As a cocktail party piece it's perfect. Too bad that's not really what we want books for (lol).

Stories
I felt like each of the stories in the simplistic (and summarized) English wasn't well explained. Reading Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and MacBeth (to take a few of the really famous plays) I felt like if you didn't have context for some of the things happening (ie: know the play plot) then you might miss some key items. Maybe I was skimming as I knew all but three plays in the book; but it just felt like the content was really stripped out. As though the stories are more synopsis of what happens and less of a narrated story. I think kids will struggle with this format as well. It just doesn't draw the reader in.

Overall
While in theory this is a brilliant idea for a republishing of Shakespeare in a simpler format; I don't think A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories really achieves what it should. I expected the format and stories to draw me in and intrigue me (as they hopefully would for children). Instead I found the text daunting with it's full page width (on over sized pages this is just bad design, where are the columns!?) and while the illustrations are adorable they are just not enough. Watching many of the modern movies or takes on these same Shakespeare plays is probably a better use of time to learn the stories outside the original text.
I give this three stars because I love the concept and idea behind it. Plus the book itself has beautiful illustrations; but overall it was quite disappointing and not what I had hoped for.

To read this and more of my reviews visit my blog at Epic Reading

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

[Jon Zelazny · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a high school drama kid, I was exposed to a fair amount of Shakespeare, to read, watch, or perform; sometimes full works, other times excerpts, and often found it daunting, be it the poetic dialogue, or simply understanding the basic story. So it was great reading this with my twelve-year-old daughter, as it breaks down the Greatest Hits into easily-digestible, 12-minute bedtime stories.

Curious how well the material sunk in, we then streamed some classic movie versions, like the 1935 MIDSUMMER and the 1993 MUCH ADO, and she was able to laugh along and enjoy them as easily as any contemporary comedy. Sure wish I'd had this as a resource when I was growing up.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Scottish Play, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Othello, As You like it, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear and the Merchant of Venice are all here in this VERY wordy Juvenilized book version of Shakespeare's classic plays.

Each play features Interpretive art work by Alice Lindstrom with a famous quote from the play.
The back of the book does give more detailed information about the backstory of the piece and why Shakespeare may have written it.

One thing that "bugged" me a bit was the nearly all-white cast of each. As some feature mistaken identities or large casts, certain characters would be minorities, not because they had to, but because it made the illustrations easier to follow the storyline (which I understand) or for the sake of featuring a diversified cast (Hmmm).
Another thing that "bugged" me was that each play/story has a dramatis personae of a short list with an image featured. The odd part about each was that many would include a secondary character who was only briefly mentioned in the authors' adaptation, versus other characters who are fully immersed into the story, but don't have a dramatis personae shot.
It felt very odd.
There is too much text in the storytelling (taking up nearly the entire page, EVERY page) for even an 8th grade reading level, but it works well for a classroom or homeschooling to adapt off of the storyline.
I'm personally a fan of the Bard and any books/media that come out in support of him/the plays, especially for younger audiences, I cheer for. I just wasn't feeling this one.

[Elena Druță · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un volum perfect pentru tânărul cititor - pentru a intra în lumea operei lui Shakespeare - și un volum mai mult decât potrivit cititorului care vrea să-și reamintească despre ce erau operele marelui bard. Că tot e perioada sărbătorilor, cred că volumul acesta ar fi un cadou mai mult decât minunat.

[Stacie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories, by Angela McAllister, is a colorfully illustrated retelling of the bard's plays aimed at young readers. Using contemporary prose, it offers a creative way to introduce children and tweens to Shakespeare's famous works.

From Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet - to Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice and many in between, this collection includes both tragedies and comedies that students will learn about in their high school English or Drama classes. Each play retold here includes an opening quote from the bard himself, and a cast of characters, and is retold in six pages of prose. The contemporary style of writing will allow young readers to get a sense of their overarching plots, as well as brief descriptions of the players involved.

As a former English teacher who has also spent years on stage, including a few turns in the bard's plays - I will be quick to suggest A Stage Full of Shakespeare studies as a reference to introduce Shakespeare. That said, a contemporary retelling like this (even one done very well) - will never serve as a replacement for the plays themselves. Older students (tweens) should view this book along with some of Shakespeare's texts, so that they may also experience the rich poetic verse that they contain, and familiarize themselves with the shape of a play versus prose. Young readers should read these tales along with their families and caregivers, and perhaps attend a Shakespeare play for young viewers afterwards.

In a world where we have so many options for reading, listening, and watching everything around us - a book like this one can only serve to widen the scope of our understanding of human experience, which is what Shakespeare did in droves. Along with his original texts, current productions of the plays and other Shakespearean-inspired works - A Stage Full of Shakespeare stands out as a creative resource for young students & readers.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories, by Angela McAllister, is a colorfully illustrated retelling of Shakespeare's plays aimed at young readers. Using contemporary prose, it offers a creative way to introduce children and tweens to Shakespeare's famous works. The blurb about this book says it can be enjoyed by children 5 and up, but I am recommending this one for middle grades and up (10 to 14). It includes a variety of his plays, both comedies and tragedies. Some are extremely well known (Romeo and Juliet) and others not as much (Much Ado About Nothing). There were several plays that I had to read in high school English and this would have been a nice supplement to the old English prose. Each retelling includes an opening quote from the bard himself, and a cast of characters, and consists of about 6 pages of prose. This retelling will get the main plot across as well as who the characters are.

That said, a contemporary retelling like this (even one done very well) - will never serve as a replacement for the plays themselves. This would make a great introduction to one of the plays and then the reader, their family, or a class could attend the play that is performed with young viewers in mind. I ended up enjoying this collection. My two favourites, MacBeth and King Lear were both represented. Even though the target audience is children, the author does not beat around the bush with any of the principal themes in these plays. The character's motives and personalities come across clear as day. The layout is eye-catching and the illustrations are unique and add much to the understanding of the story. This would make a great addition to an elementary school library. The publisher, Lincoln Children's Books, generously provided me with a copy of this book upon request. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own.

[Amna Ikhlaq]

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for a digital Advanced Readers Copy of the book.

I ended up loving this collection more than I had expected! I've read only a fair share of Shakespeare's plays in abridged form and even less in their original form because it's always harder and more time consuming to grasp the situations in Shakespearean English. But the adaptation of stories in this book is delightful but also straight forward. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed reading Shakespeare this much! Even though the target audience for this volume is clearly younger, the author does not beat around the bush with any of the principal themes in these plays. The character's motives and personalities come across clear as day. The layout is eye-catching and the illustrations are unique and very well complimenting. I loved the little portion at the end which gave a little background history on all the plays included!

A book that I believe can be enjoyed by adolescents and adults alike.

Rating: 5/5 stars

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does it matter if this beautiful language, below

"Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
35I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?"

becomes this:

Are you real or are you a dagger of my mind?
Fate must has sent this vision to lead me

The second is clearer, and that is what this book is for, to make the stories clearer, and easier to understand. Still, I miss the flowing language, that makes Shakespeare so quoted in modern English that we don't even notice that that is what we are doing any more.

On the other hand, they have kept: "By the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes".

And so it goes through all the rest of the plays. The story is well retold, in modern English, and some lines are kept, and others are made more clear, such as Juliet's lament about Romeo being a Montague.

This book is good for teaching the contents of the plays, and making them easy to read, and understand, but is no substitute for seeing or reading the real thing, and I hope that anyone reading this book, would realize that.

With that caveat, I would recommend this as a good introduction to Shakespeare.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

[Ioana · Rating 4 out of 5]

În liceu și facultate îi devoram pur și simplu piesele de teatru ale lui William Shakespeare, așa că tare curioasă am fost de volumul Lumea poveștilor lui Shakespeare. Noua carte a Angelei McAllister îi invită pe cei mici în lumea intrigilor shakespeariene, deschizându-le apetitul pentru teatru cu ajutorul a 12 dintre cele mai faimoase povești ale celebrului bard englez.
„Dacă e-adevărat că muzica e hrana dragostei, cântare dați-mi!„
Hamlet, Romeo și Julieta, Regele Lear, Othello sau Visul unei nopți de vară promit o lectură savuroasă atât pentru cei mici, cât și pentru publicul matur datorită textului fluid, unde mesajul este păstrat intact, doar tonul sângeros este redus din intensitate. Ilustrațiile dau viață personajelor, cititorul simțindu-se ca un spectator privilegiat la o piesă privată de teatru.

https://ciobanuldeazi.home.blog/2022/...

[Ana Varó · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here we are again. Para un amante de Shakespeare es una maravilla de libro, una edición chulisima, de tapa dura y con ilustraciones preciosas. Cuando te apetece revivir alguna obra del bardo sin leer todo el libro original, este libro está muy bien, son versiones simplificadas para “niños”, aunque todavía no tengo claro que las historias de Shakespeare sean alguna vez aptas para niños.

[Jodie Boast · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely stunning and I’m so happy I chose to use my birthday vouchers to get it.

This book will be with me forever and something to always look back on. A small write up of the Shakespeare play in story form followed by a factual summary at the back. Informative and sweet with beautiful alliterations. ❤️

[Dids · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shakespeare benim icin cok ayri bir noktadadir. Cocuklarla keyifle okunabilecek bir kitap. Her gece 1 oyunu okuyarak bitirdik.
Rahatsiz eden tek bir konu vardi o da malesef yazim yanlislari fazlaydi.

[cherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this book is aimed at kids, it was quite a fun read. It is hard to say something about the characters or the plot as it are multiple short stories, but it did feel oversimplified at times to me personally, but then again it is focused on kids. However, I think there were some things that would be too hard for kids to grasp and are too gruesome.

[Ilona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read the ARC of A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories by Angela McAllister. I voluntarily read and reviewed this advanced copy; all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm so glad that I received an ARC for A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories. For some time now I've wanted to read Shakespeare's work but was always held back due to the difficult language. This is a brilliant introduction to some of Shakespeare's work, the tone is more simple and understandable for a younger audience. Something I admire about this book is that it doesn't shy away from the original topics as murder, betrayal and death, as one might do while writing for a younger audience.

While I was familiar with a few stories, like Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing, and found those most enjoyable, I also enjoyed getting to discover some new ones for me like Othello and Twelfth Night.

If you haven't read any Shakespeare yet, found the originals plays difficult to read or if you absolutely love Shakespeare, then I highly recommend A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories by Angela McAllistar. Oh and by the way.... the illustrations by Alice Lindstrom are simply beautiful!

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book includes 12 of Shakespeare's most well-known plays, and retold in prose form to be easily understood by middle grade, middle school, and high school students. The plays in this anthology include "Macbeth," "Romeo and Juliet," "Hamlet," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Tempest," "Twelfth Night," "Othello," "As You Like It," "Julius Caesar," "Much Ado About Nothing," "King Lear," and "The Merchant of Venice." Back matter includes a brief biography of W. S., a complete list of all his plays, and a section called "About the Plays in this Book" with a paragraph about each play. The plays contain full-page and partial-page stylized illustrations by Alice Lindstrom. A good starting introduction to the Bard and his plays.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art work in this book is beautiful. The stories of Shakespeare put at it's simplist form are short & perfect for me. Of course nothing beats the original stories, but I would recommend reading this to your children if u wanna know the basics of the famous stories without the Shakespearean writings.

[Sarah Oakey · Rating 5 out of 5]

When it comes to Shakespeare I have to reach for my dunces hat because apart from Romeo and Juliet I'm clueless. As much as I adore everything about The Bard, the words of Shakespeare are like another language to me.... So after a trip to Shakespeares Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon I spotted this book in the gift shop and knew I needed it, not only because of the stunning illustrations but also I loved the idea of simplified versions of Shakespeare's work to give me a basic idea of the plots of his most famous works.

🎭For the past two months myself and my 12 year old son have been bedtime reading this book together. Although many of the stories still confuse us it's still a huge help to read them in our current familiar tongue 👅.

Being a huge Tudor era fan I love all things connected to Shakespeare... Have you ever researched the words and phrases he introduced into our language??? (See pic 9)
"Love is Blind"
"Wild Goose chase"
"Wear your heart on your Sleeve"
"Not Slept a Wink"
Go check them all out, it's fascinating...

Did you know it was rumoured that Shakespeare's head had been stolen from his grave and in 2016 Archeologists concluded it was probably stolen 200 years ago...even with the following words on his gravestone
🎭 "𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑, 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝐽𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑠’ 𝑠𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑟, / 𝑇𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒. / 𝐵𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠, / 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑦 𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠."🎭

[Katherine Loyacano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories, written by Angela McAllister and illustrated by Alice Lindstrom, is an anthology of 12 tales from William Shakespeare retold for children. The twelve tales include six of Shakespeare's comedies and six of his tragedies. Each of the tales begins with a quote by Shakespeare, a title page wonderfully illustrated, and a pictorial glossary of characters. Each story is complemented by vivid illustrations created in collage. After all twelve stories, there is a brief biography of Shakespeare, a complete list of his plays, and a short overview about the plays included in this collection.

Shakespeare's plays explore all kinds of issues and have common themes, such as appearance and reality, family and loyalty, love and romance, and good and evil to name a few. I enjoyed all of the stories in this collection with A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing being two of my favorites. Stories in this anthology include:

Macbeth
Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Tempest
Twelfth Night
Othello
As You Like It
Julius Caesar
Much Ado About Nothing
King Lear
The Merchant of Venice

Shakespeare's plays are considered to be great works of literature. Many of them are still performed world-wide today. I think readers of all ages who enjoy Shakespeare or have been hesitant to give Shakespeare's plays a try will enjoy this delightful collection.

[Victoria (TheMennomilistReads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have only read two full Shakespearean plays before and loved them. Reading this book was like reading paraphrased versions of several of his famous plays. Things I did not like about this book:
When there were many characters in a story, this book was like regurgitating information far too quickly in a tiny amount of pages that made the stories confusing at times. With the stories more spread out, I would have enjoyed it more. I understand this is supposed to be for children but the amount of deceit and violence in these stories are not child friendly one bit!! Only a few of the comedies were somewhat okay.Even some of those were violent. I guess the idea of solving problems by killing people after misinformation given to those who killed people is a common theme in many Shakespearean plays, which I did not understand at times. The plays are very clever though. Did Shakespeare have an obsession with Italy? I wish there was s little more artwork.
Things I liked: the way characters’ portraits were drawn as an introduction to each story. It made me so glad to see that I could reference and go back to when I got confused. The art was fun! I learned stories I never had known about before.

[superawesomekt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars This book is quite beautiful, appropriate for gift giving.

This book has been invaluable in introducing the plot of Shakespeare plays to my children—currently ages 10, 8, and 7. It doesn't quite capture the language (though some of the stories are better than others—Much Ado About Nothing captured the banter better than expected). They love it when I read to them from this book.

I highly recommend this along with Something Rich and Strange: A Treasury of Shakespeare's Verse, which is a treasury of Shakespearean lines and sonnets. 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

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful children's book! A great way to introduce kids to the works of Shakespeare!

The stories are all very richly illustrated and each one has a great introduction page, showing and explaining who the various characters are, as well as presenting the young reader with a well-chosen quote from each story. I loved it!

The author did a great job at simplifying the stories enough so that children can easily understand them, at the same time staying true to Shakespeare's voice, especially in the dialogues. I also liked that she alternated the heavier dramatic plays with the lighter and more romantic comedies.

The illustrations are gorgeous and colorful. I love the different techniques the designer used to color in the drawings. Sometimes they look like they were painted in with broad brushstrokes and other times we get a kind of 3d effect with leaves or other small decorative elements seemingly being cut out of paper and pasted on top of the artwork. There's so much to discover in them!

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

'A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories' by Angela McAllister with illustrations by Alice Lindstrom is a book full of stories adapted from the plays of William Shakespeare.

The 12 adapted plays are comedy and tragedy. They span the best known of Shakespeare's plays. Each story opens with a quote from the play and a cast of the characters the reader will come across. The stories run about 7 pages with illustrations and are really nice adaptations.

I enjoyed these abridged versions of the plays and the really nice illustrations that accompany them. These stories don't shy from the darker elements of the plays, so keep that in mind for young readers. Then again, I would have loved those darker elements, and still do.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Childrens, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

[KayKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed "A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories." Twelve plays, six comedies and six tragedies, are chosen in this collection among the many great works written by Shakespeare. This book is an awesome way to introduce the legendary playwright to young readers. Text are nicely written and the stories are adorned with beautiful artworks.

The author includes a brief biography of Shakespeare at the end of the book together with a list of completed works by him as well as short introductions to the twelve plays chosen for the book. While the stories themselves are more for retelling the famous tales, the themes of each play aren't obvious enough by simply reading the stories alone. The brief introductions help to pinpoint the basic themes loud and clear which I really appreciate. Overall, a wonderful book for children and parents to read together.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this for my sister to read to her grandchildren when they are old enough. But I really enjoyed reading it and love the colourful illustrations!

Twelve of Shakespeare's plays written as stories for children age 7 and up. Most are between 8 and 9 pages including illustrations (which can take up a full page). Each story includes:
* a short quote
* a colourful title page
* a page of characters illustrated and titled
* three symbols beside the title on each page to provide clues to the story line

At the end a page of information about William Shakespeare and another page listing the full list of plays by Shakespeare grouped by Comedies, Histories and Tragedies.

And the cherry on the top of this book - a two-page description of each of the twelve stories - (no longer than five lines each) - sharing a moral or the point made by the story and its significance.

Wonderful read.

[Paul Franco · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bard for kids.
Each play gets a title page, with a famous quote and a mishmash of artwork that shows some of the important points. That’s followed by a small cast of characters, and finally an illustrated text that boils the story down to its essential elements, just enough to know what’s going on.
The easiest way to describe this for Bard buffs is that it’s similar to the Lambs’ book of synopses, only for children. And it’s illustrated like a kiddie version of the Canterbury Tales.
The illustrations are more basic than the words.
The Tempest and Twelfth Night were my faves here.
Not all the plays are here, but that’s no surprise; only twelve, mostly the famous ones.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

[Ioanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A brilliant introduction to Shakespeare for children, A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories is a collection of beautifully written summaries for Shakespeare's most popular works. Accompanied by vibrant and aesthetically pleasing illustrations, this collection can not only inform children about these great works, but also sparkle their curiosity and lead them to read extensively on the original works.

A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories is a beautiful book that both adults and children will definitely love! Strongly recommended for all ages.

[Maribel · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw this beautiful new collection of some of the more popular and well-known Shakespeare plays for children I nearly died of joy. The illustrations by Alice Lindstrom had be gushing. They are beautiful! The cover of this collection is a good indicator of the amazing goodies that you can expect to accompany the child-tailored versions of Shakespeare's works.

I found that Angela McAllister did a wonderful job staying true to the original plays while also making them accessible for children. I am not a mother, but if I did have children I know that I would be reading this version of Shakespeare to them alongside all the classic fairy tales.

[Critterbee❇ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a difficult one for me to make a decision about. Shakespeare for children. The stories and amazing, but the language that Shakespeare used is also amazing. Do we familiarize children with the story and then read the actual wording to them or let them read the original language later? Or do we introduce the original language to them instead of a re-worded version? Or should we introduce the work as they were intended- on the stage?

The stories are compact and cover the gist of the originals, but the language used is pretty far from the beauty of the original. The photos are colorful and give the appearance of ancient art.

eARC Netgalley