After a day of visiting Shakespeare's house E. Nesbit took great joy in telling her children all about The Bard. As they were looking over a book of his famous plays, the children quickly became disillusioned after reading a few pages. The children had a hard time understanding the words that Shakespeare used. So, in an effort to help the children understand, she told the story of A Midsummer's Night's Dream in her own words, After she had finished telling the tale, the children were delighted. They encouraged Nesbit to write the story in her own words so that they might understand them better. And she did. Which is why we have the wonderful book: Shakespeare Retold.

I read this book to my children when they were younger. Not this edition, of course, but I wish it had been. This beautiful book has a forward from John Lithgow. He talks about his history with Shakespeare. He spent his summers around an outdoor festival where his father would produce Shakespeare's plays. The plays became the story of his childhood and no doubt influenced his desire to be an actor. In addition to John Lithgow's introduction, this book is also illustrated by the illustrious Antonio Javier Caparo, who has lent his talents to many other children's books. His illustrations make a wonderful addition to this book.

E. Nesbit has written many wonderful books for children. My favorite is The Railway Children. I can't imagine someone other than E. Nesbit writing these stories. She does a fantastic job making these plays accessible to the young. She writes in a plain, easy-to-understand style that children will understand. This book includes: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Tempest, and Much Ado About Nothing. This book will expose children to Shakespeare's timeless plays and hopefully foster a lifelong love for The Bard. Shakespeare Retold is a treasure!
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This book is a retelling of famous Shakespearean plays with a biography of his life and a timeline. Each play is condensed and retold in modern day English with many quotes from the original play throughout, and each story is around 5-10 pages long. This is an informational and historical book about Shakespeare's life and his famous works. It gives a detailed timeline of Shakespeare's life as well as historical events that happened during this period in history and recommended readings for further information. This would be a good book for children in 6th grade and up to read to gain a general overview of his plays in an easy and kid friendly way. I could use this instead of reading the actual play or could use this to supplement the play so that what they do not understand (which to be honest is a lot when reading the original) can be found in this easier summary version. The illustration go along well with each play and are made digitally. ( )