I like the challenge of trying to figure out what on planet earth he’s trying to say.

How to introduce kids to Shakespeare—not just to the stories behind the plays but to the richness of his language and the depth of his characters. That’s the challenge that Leon Garfield, a wonderful children’s book writer, undertook to meet in his monumental and delightful Shakespeare Stories. Here are twenty-one of the Bard’s plays, presented in what is not a series of dry retellings, but rather a refashioning of the dramas as stories, in a way that remains true to the essential spirit of the original versions. Garfield has captured all the richness of character, plot, mood, and setting in Shakespeare’s works without resorting to simplification. Indeed, he deliberately retains much of Shakespeare’s language, skillfully weaving it into his own prose so that the reader is introduced to the flavor of the verse, as well as to the incidents of plot and the spectacle of the drama. Leon Garfield’s Shakespeare Stories is an essential distillation—a celebration and a reminder of Shakespeare’s genius as a poet and dramatist.

a good book to for anyone who is intimidated by Shakespeare. Good for Middle school to adult. ( )

These are stunningly well told versions of the plays.

They give not only the story, but a wonderful sense of the theatrical - you read and enjoy a visual sensation as well as the speech of Shakespeare (all the words 'spoken' are taken directly from Shakespeare's scripts).

Romeo and Juliet, for example, sweats in the heat of Verona. There is a fantastic image of wasps fighting! You go directly into the story - and moral considerations are there.

The pictures support the text well- giving yet another dimension to the book.

Forget Lamb!

I've used these stories in the classroom for many years now - partly because young people (11 through to much older!) relate to them -but also because I really enjoy re-reading them.

(There is a whole set of Abridged Shakspeare by Garfield too - and wonderful Animations done with Russian animators!) ( )