Shakespeare for Everyone by Emma Roberts illustrated by Sarah Tanat Jones

You might like to begin with my post about an older book that explores the work of Shakespeare. My focus book today is very new and was published in 2021. I had never heard of Magic Cat Publishing so I did a little research. I do love the sound of their ethos:

We set up Magic Cat to create beautiful children's books that do more. We gently weave ideas that matter into stories that engage, entertain and bring joy. Ideas about kindness, togetherness, friendship, inclusivity. Ideas about the future of our planet, about culture, activism, and mindfulness. Our books inspire care for our world… and each other. We're acutely aware that today’s kids are growing up in a world of uncertainty that moves so fast, and needs more togetherness. We believe that that magic happens when families spend time around a book, as kids engage in thoughts and conversations that help them grow into kind and aware 21st century adults.  So let's help them understand, in the way they love most... through stories, discovered and enjoyed together.

This large format book has 62 pages filled with dense information but, as with all non fiction, it will work best if you just dip into the parts that spark your curiosity. The glossary and timeline of plays will be useful for teachers but I do wish this book had an index. This book would be a good addition to a Primary School or High School library. 

Following pages of introductory information, each play category is explored over four double spreads - comedies; tragedies; histories; and romances. Then the author explores Shakespeare's poetry and the folios. If you need to share a plot summary of a play the pages in this book are easy to read and colourful. Emma Roberts adds a summary using a few words for each play:

• The young lovers' struggle as seen in A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Separated and reunited as seen in Much ado about Nothing
• The clever servant as seen in Twelfth Night
• Family tensions as seen in As you like it
• The hero's flaw as seen in Othello
• Greed as seen in King Lear
• Magic and Miracles as seen in Pericles

"Although packed with information, it has the look and feel of a graphic novel, with its retro fonts and sketchy pen-and-wash illustrations."  Dr Robin Morrow Magpies Magazine vol 37; issue 2; May 2022.

Informative, accessible and entertaining, Shakespeare for Everyone is highly recommended. Kids' Book Review

Over the final pages you can read about the rebuilding of the Globe Theatre; Shakespeare in translation (over 100 languages); Shakespeare and rap - Akala uses hip hop to share Shakespeare with young audiences; and Shakespeare in space - 25 moons from Uranus reference Shakespeare's characters. Did you know The Lion King is loosely based on Hamlet and West Side Story is of course Romeo and Juliet with a New York setting. 

Shakespeare's Storybook: Folk tales that inspired the Bard by Patrick Ryan illustrated by James Mayhew

Working in a school library last week I spied this book - actually it jumped off the shelf because I was working in the 398s (folklore and fairytales) but in my mind this book should perhaps have been on the 822.33 shelf.  Only librarians or teacher-librarian will have any clue what I am talking about here. I also noticed the illustrator James Mayhew and since I am a fan of his work I was keen to explore this book further. Naturally I borrowed this book immediately. 

A few years ago my Primary school invited The Bell Shakespeare company to perform for our Grade Five students. Their play text was Just Macbeth by Andy Griffiths so the teachers on the grade (wisely) decided to use this as an opportunity to introduce a little Shakespeare, especially but not exclusively, the play of Macbeth. 

So as the Teacher-Librarian I set about acquiring as many young reader versions of Shakespeare as I could find and after couple of years I am able to boast we had a rather wonderful shelf or two filled with these books. Sadly we didn't have this splendid book by Patrick Ryan.

Shakespeare's Storybook is not new (published in 2001) but it is fabulous and I am certain it must have taken years to research and write. In fact I hope Patrick Ryan used all this work towards a PhD - yes it is that good! In fact after a little research I now discover I am right and Patrick Ryan does have a PhD - here is his web site.  You can see him in action on this page. 

The original publication of this book came with two CDs - I wish I could hear them - they would be a terrific resource. Sadly this book is now out of print. 

Later editions of this book had a different cover but I much prefer the original:

Here is a list of the stories in this book:

The Devil's Bet (The Taming Of The Shrew)

The Hill Of Roses (Romeo And Juliet)

A Bargain Is A Bargain (The Merchant Of Venice)

Snowdrop (As You Like It)

Ashboy (Hamlet)

Cap-O-Rushes (King Lear)

The Flower Princess (The Winter's Tale)

In this book you will discover the origins or possible origins of these seven famous plays by Shakespeare. Naturally we cannot sit down and talk to William Shakespeare but from all the research by Patrick Ryan and others I am sure too, it seems William Shakespeare heard all sorts of stories and he used them as inspiration for his plays.

To quote from the introduction:

"William Shakespeare was one of the best storytellers in the world. ... But he did not usually make up the stories that he told. He took popular stories and made them into poems and plays. Sometimes he wrote a play so that it followed the story exactly as he first heard it or read it. Sometimes he changed the story to make a completely new version. ... The audiences in Shakespeare's time knew the stories, books and poems that he based his plays  upon. But today most people have forgotten them."

On every story’s introductory pages, Shakespearean quotes frame the text, and one or more main characters are drawn and labelled to aid the reader in following the plot. Mayhew’s detailed watercolors fill the margins of the pages, and each tale features a full-page illustration. A lovely supplement to the Shakespeare oeuvre. Kirkus

At the back of the book, Patrick Ryan lists many of his sources and he includes a further reading list for children.  Here are a few of the books from former school library and you could also look at this collection for young children compiled by my friend from Kinderbookswitheverything.  In my next post I will share a brand new book - Shakespeare for everyone by Emma Roberts (Magic Cat Publishing).

These are Orchard books by Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross

Here are a few from this set:

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

This book is "just swell"

Holling Hoodhood has Mrs Baker as his English teacher. He is sure she hates him - that's HATES with all capital letters. This situation is made worse by the fact that Holling has to spend every Wednesday afternoon with Mrs Baker and more importantly Mrs Baker has to spend every Wednesday afternoon with Holling - she calls him Mr Hoodhood - and this is all because he happens to be Presbyterian.

On Wednesdays half the class go to Temple Beth-El for Hebrew school and the other half to Saint Adelbert's for Catechism.  Holling gets to stay at school with Mrs Baker. Yes every Wednesday for the whole year.

After a few weeks of cleaning the classroom and the blackboard dusters (it is 1968) and a small disaster with the class rats -  Mrs Baker decides Holling will read Shakespeare plays and answer quiz questions (there are 150 of them each time). What Mrs Baker perhaps does not expect is that Holling loves this. He is an intelligent boy and he is well read. We know has has read Treasure Island four times, Kidnapped twice and The Call of the Wild. Reading the plays adds a whole new dimension of enjoyment for Holling. He particularly enjoys the language of Shakespeare especially the insults. He even scores a part in the local amateur production wearing yellow tights and feathers.

There is a lot going on the Holling. His dad is just awful. He is an ambitious man who wants to win every architect contract in the town. He has no time for his son. His mother just seems ineffectual and, can I say, simpering.  Then we have the cast of school bullies especially Doug Swieteck and his brother.

Characters
Mr Guareschi Principal
"Mr Guareschi's long ambition had been to become dictator of a small country. Danny Hupfer said that he had been waiting for the CIA to get rid of Fidel Castro and then send him down to Cuba, which Mr Guareschi would then rename Guareschiland."

Mrs Baker Teacher
She seems to only focus on the lessons but underneath a lot is going on for her especially in relation to her son who has been deployed to Vietnam.

Meryl Lee Kowalski Student
Her dad runs the other architect firm in town. Her relationship and friendship with Holling slowly develops - it is a beautiful thing to watch.

Mai Thi Student originally from Vietnam

Danny Hupfer Student
I wish he was my friend. The scene when he insults the famous baseball player after this guy insults Holling is just splendid.

Rats Sycorax and Caliban (from The Tempest)
The parts in this story about the rats are not for the faint hearted - you have been warned.

Coach Quatrini
Favourite expression "At tempo".

Mrs Bigio School Cook
When you read the final scenes in this book you will understand why, for me, Mrs Bigio is a true hero. And it is the actions of Mrs Bigio when she makes nuoc mau for the class and for Mai Thi that made me cry.

Heather Holling's sister
Her voice in this story is so important as a way to understand the complex politics of this time.

Laughs
The names of the school textbooks - English for you and me; Mathematics for you and me; Geography for you and me.
The English concepts taught by Mrs Baker - diagramming sentences such as "He kicked the round ball into the goal." "The girl walked home." 

And this one for Holling - "For it so falls out, that we have we prize not to the worth whiles we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost, why, then we rack the value, then we find the virtue that passion would not show us while it was ours."

"No native speaker of the English language could diagram this sentence.  The guy who wrote it couldn't diagram this sentence. ... 'If you had been listening to my instructions, you should have been able to do this,' said Mrs Baker, which is sort of like saying that if you've ever flicked on a light switch, you should be able to build an atomic reactor."

Atomic Bomb Awareness Month
"We stayed under our desks for eighteen minutes, until the wind would have whisked away the first waves of airborne radioactive particles, and the blast of burning air would have passed overhead ... and every living thing would have been incinerated except for us because we were scrunched under our gummy desks with our hands over our heads, breathing quietly and evenly."

This book has it all!  I laughed, I nearly cried, I marveled at the references to Shakespeare and US History, I cheered when things went the right way for Holling and I cringed (big time) when things went horribly wrong for Holling. If I knew him in person I'm sure I would reach out and give him a big hug of reassurance. Boy oh boy life has thrown some hideous curve balls at this kid.  Read this part again and then marvel at the fact that I am an adult, woman, in Australia, with absolutely no knowledge of baseball. I am not a American adolescent and yet  I loved this book so so so much! I'm visiting some adult readers this week and I would love them to read this book so I think The Wednesday Wars will appeal to readers 12+ and to all adults.

At its heart this is a book about relationships. Every relationship is special in this story but the best one in my view is the one between Holling and Mrs Baker.

The Wednesday Wars was a Newbery Honor book in 2008. It is considered an American classic so it is in print. I read my copy as an ebook. Please take a few minutes now to read this review by Betsy Bird - her words are far more eloquent than mine.

Holling navigates the multitudinous snares set for seventh-graders—parental expectations, sisters, bullies, girls—with wry wit and the knowledge that the world will always be a step or two ahead of him. Schmidt has a way of getting to the emotional heart of every scene without overstatement, allowing the reader and Holling to understand the great truths swirling around them on their own terms. Kirkus Star Review

Sweet Adversity by Sheryl Gwyther

"Addie gasped. ... Through the front window was a magnificent sight. A huge arch spanned the inlet - the new Sydney Harbour Bridge, its curved spans almost joined in the middle. Up on its highest point, bridge builders climbed over the span like tiny ants. 'People will be able to walk to the other side of Sydney one day' Addie said ... "

Adversity is the perfect name for the main character in this book. Adversity McAllister is only twelve years old but her life is filled with adversity.  She is living in an orphanage and, as is the usual way with orphanages in stories, this place is filled with cruelty and injustice. Addie is told her mother and father are dead. Her parents are Shakespearean actors and they think they have left Addie in a safe place while they try to make enough money to survive during the hard days of the Depression in 1930s Australia. The orphanage is awful but Addie has worked out ways to survive and has befriended the cook and the gardener. Later they will prove to be important allies. The other children adore her storytelling and acting especially with her co-performer, a cockatiel, called Macbeth.  His outbursts of Shakespearean quotes make everyone, except Matron Maddox of course, smile and laugh.  Acting out the plays her parents performed makes Addie so happy but Matron has rules - there will be NO FRIVOLITY, NO SINGING AND NO DANCING.

Addie is constantly at war with the Matron. Addie tries to protect the younger children from Matron's angry outbursts and from dangers such as the laundry boiler. Matron, however, has her own plans for Addie. She makes money selling children to unscrupulous dealers. Addie has a beautiful singing voice and she has recently won the Coal Country Eisteddfod. An evil showman called Mr Barnett E. Scrimshaw arrives and he is determined to get his hands on Adversity and exploit her talent. Matron is very willing to sell Addie if the price is right.

I love the Shakespearean chapter headings in this book:

• This above all: to thine own self be true
• Something wicked this way comes
• My kingdom for a horse
• Exit pursued by a bear
• If music be the food of love, play on

A class could research the origin of each chapter heading - there are 33 of them.

I also thoroughly appreciated the inclusion of historical references and the way they are gently introduced in context. I find so many stories with an historical base try too hard and way too many 'facts' are included in ways that detract from the plot. The opposite is true for Sweet Adversity. There is a true flavour of 1930 here in Australia and especially in Sydney with references to a swagman looking for work, notice of evictions in The Rocks area of Sydney, building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the general poverty Addie encounters as she tries to escape from Matron Maddox and the evil Mr Scrimshaw. The Reading Time reviewer said "The research, while extensive, is woven in seamlessly, never hindering the narrative."

Here is a set of very detailed and very useful teachers notes by Robyn Sheahan-Bright. If you pick up this book and need a text preview read Chapter 19 - it is filled with tension.

Read some reviews (click on each link):

Kids' Book Review: Sheryl Gwyther gets it right. Her ability to immerse young readers into worlds of yesteryear with such a clear strong presence of today is exemplary. Her narrative slides along as alluringly as a sweet mountain brook, mesmerizing readers with plenty of action and emotion.

Just so Stories: This is a tale of courage and resilience set against a backdrop of extraordinarily difficult times and seemingly insurmountable odds. Addie is an impressive hero. Despite her youth and her troubles, she refuses to bow to the immense pressures and evil predation put upon her.

The Book Bubble: In Sweet Adversity, Sheryl Gwyther has produced an adventure story with a strong female hero, a touch of history and some fantastic bad guys who keep the story interesting. 

Sweet Adversity is listed as a Notable CBCA book (Younger Readers) for 2019. I am working my way through the twenty titles.  I have now read twelve. I especially like Shine Mountain, Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt and this book from today - Sweet Adversity.  I also think His name was Walter and The Slightly alarming tale of the Whispering Wars (which I have just started reading) will also make the final list of six.

King of Shadows by Susan Cooper

He spent hours at a time sitting in an upstairs room, 

scratching away with a quill pen... 

The pen must have driven him crazy; 

he had to trim it often with a special little sharp knife, 

and a bristling bunch of big new feathers sat on his desk waiting for the moment when he threw the old quill irritably on the floor and reached to sharpen a new one.  

I longed to be able to hand him a ballpoint pen.

• Where is this happening?
• Who is writing with this quill?
• Why can't the person describing this scene pass the writer a pen?

This is London.  The year is 1599.  The writer is Will Shakespeare and the observer is a boy called Nat who has been mysteriously transported from our modern world to act in a play at the original Globe theatre.

The play is A Midsummer Night's dream and Nat will take the part of Puck.

This is a gripping story made all the better by the authentic descriptions of London in 1599.  Here are a few :

" ... London swept over me, caught me up, in a nightmare mix of sight and sound and smell. Even before six in the morning the street was filled with people, bustling about, carrying huge bundles, slung from their necks; dodging to avoid men or horses. Carts clattered over the cobbles, creaking, rocking, slashing up muck ... The whole street smelled bad."

"More than anything from the that first day, I remember the noise.  You'd think that we have more noise today in the everyday world, what with traffic ... but the London of that time was full of church clocks striking the quarter hours, and church bells ringing for services; of watchmen ringing handbells in the street."

"The streets around the theatre were crammed with people, and here and there tumblers and musicians working their hearts our for an odd coin."

I have been reading books which reference Shakespeare because later this year our Grade Five students will view a production by the Bell Shakespeare Company.  This year their play is based on A Midsummer Night's dream and is called Bottoms Dream.

Below I have included a range of book covers for King of Shadows first published in 1999.  Ours is the largest one - which one do you like?

This book could be used as an extension reading resource for our more able students.  There are some harsh scenes in this book including decapitated heads on poles which Nat sees near London bridge and his experience of bear baiting which is quite graphic.

This book is so famous it even has its own entry in Wikipedia.

You can listen to a ten minute audio sample here which begins in the modern world with the group of boys who are getting ready to travel to London to perform at the new Globe theatre.  Here is the Kirkus review.  There are some good links and teaching ideas here.