Terry Deary's Best Ever Shakespeare Tales

Top Ten

by Terry Deary

Why is that Hamlet guy always talking to himself? In language kids can understand, this book explores the Bard's ten best-known plays. Included is a biography of Shakespeare and a discussion of theater in his day.

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction, Classics, History, Short Stories, Plays, Comics

Paperback

First published March 20, 1998

About the author

A former actor, theatre-director and drama teacher, Deary says he began writing when he was 29. Most famously, he is one of the authors of the Horrible Histories series of books popular among children for their disgusting details, gory information and humorous pictures and among adults for getting children interested in history. Books in the series have been widely translated into other languages and imitated.

A cartoon series has been made of the series of books and was shown on CiTV for a period in 2002.

The first series of a live-action comedy sketch show of the same name was shown on CBBC in 2009 and a second series is due.

Terry is also known widely throughout children and adult reading groups alike for his True Stories series (see below for series list).

He received an Honorary Doctorate of Education from the University of Sunderland in 2000. His numerous accolades also include the Blue Peter "Best Nonfiction Author of the Century" Award in the U.K.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Meridith Byrne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teachers who are wondering what to give their young readers to satisfy the common core non-fiction requirements need to get to know Terry Deary. I teach Shakespeare to my middle-schoolers using this book, and even my emerging readers love it. The bard is fun and irreverent again - just as he should be. Also check out Deary's Horrible Histories.

[Meghan Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fabulous teaching resource to support the study of Shakespeare.

[penta]

To było zdecydowanie ciekawe ujęcie tematu. Nastawiłam się do Deary'ego trochę negatywnie po "Mitach greckich", bo facet zdecydowanie idzie imo na łatwiznę, gdy chodzi o formę przedstawiania na różne sposoby tych historii, najwięcej też z nich wycina, ale widać, że poza Złotą Dziesiątką pisał dużo ze Strrrasznej Historii, bo nie spodziewałam się w takiej relatywnie już dosyć starej książce dostać bardzo on point krytyki antysemityzmu i seksizmu u Szekspira w sposób przyswajalny również dla dzieci.

[Cricket Muse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terry Deary, well known for his Horrible History series takes on the top ten plays of Shakespeare. Each play is presented as a creative summary from comic strip to newspaper article to diary entry to police report, Deary provides the main points of each play with plentiful humor. He then rounds out each play with a host of trivia.

Some of the humor is a bit bold, although middle readers will probably appreciate the raw humor that would have been quite appreciated in Shakespeare’s day.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times this book is really silly, but it works for the age range it's aimed for. It gives summaries of the top ten performed Shakespeare plays over the past 200 years in just a few pages and in creative ways. There are also lots of pages in between each summary with good information about Shakespeare, actors, the Elizabethan age, etc. It's a good way to introduce kids to a plot summary that will allow them to understand the story told in a more full format.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deary takes several swipes at academics for being clueless about Shakespeare. Ha! He makes to many factual errors that it is tempting to call him clueless, and it would be fair, but it would also miss the point, which is that this is a fun introduction to Shakespeare that won't do much real harm to those who want to meet the Bard. I recommend the book, but with a dozen caveats.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

More fun with Terry Deary books! I read this aloud to my eldest.
But considering I'm currently enjoying Jackie French's Shakespeare series, this was a GREAT book!

[M3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

good summary in language I can understand.

[Rae]

Ten well-known plays. Fun illustrations. Horrible Histories author. Scholastic book. Entertaining summaries.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so fun, I love Terry Deary.

[Inbar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, but I wasn't able to read some of them because of the font, and they were written in a confusing way.

[Nori Fitchett · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
A good book for younger readers

[Pavitar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't really a book it's like a bunch of William Shakespeares plays put to together. I thought it was okay. The only thing I liked about it was that everytime you finish reading a play, it gives you these cool facts about it.

[Alice Visser · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the lightest Shakespeare book I read on the beach -- a typical Terry Deary book for kids with lots of jokes, with historical accuracy sometimes taking a bottom shelf. There are some clever approaches to explaining the plays, however, and one or two brilliant, fun quizzes that I will definitely use in the classroom.

[Adele · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are good versions of shakespeare because Deary makes them interesting for kids. he even makes them funny. My favourite was a midsummer night's dream.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was kind of funny. But only in some parts. I liked this book because I think Shakespeare was a genius.

[Abigail Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was hilarious and most important, it catches your attention.

[Arya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, really! This is a message to all those who say Shakespeare is boring!

[Jimmakos Gavagias · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very interesting and learnfull. a lot thinks i didn't knew about Shakespeare are in my mind wiki. i recommend it to all funs of classics

[Hubert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read book for young Shakespeare lover

[Liselotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit more boring than other Terry Deary book, but that's just because of the subject matter. The book is funny, witty and informative, and just like all the other books in the series!