Introducing Shakespeare
By Phyllis Fantauzzo

Bruce Coville's retelling of Macbeth may be just what you've been looking for to get your students interested in Shakespeare.

I am sure you agree that plowing through 16th century original Shakespearean plays is difficult for adults, let alone children. Even though the stories are entrancing, the language can be confusing to readers who, unfortunately, can get intimidated and turned off by classic literature forever.

At last, truly wonderful and reader-friendly Shakespeare books for kids are becoming plentiful. Young readers can discover Shakespeare through picture books that vividly illustrate a play in prose or cartoon form while older kids are lured into Shakespeare through novels that look into his world and his works.

Yo''ll soon find that there are many opportunities for learning when teaching Shakespeare. For example, when reading nonfiction books about Shakespeare, children learn about the colorful history of London in the 16th century. Young readers who want to connect with characters their own age will love Tic and Annie of Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series who are whisked away to Shakespearean times in Stage Fright on a Summer Night, Magic Tree House #25 (Random House, 2002). The following books are my favorites for working with fledgling Shakespeare scholars.

Picture books

• William Shakespeare's Hamlet by Bruce Coville (Dial, 2004). His retellings of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Dial,1996), Macbeth (Dial, 1997), Romeo and Juliet (Dial,1999) and The Tempest (Doubleday, 1994) are also spectacular.
• Bravo, Mr. William Shakespeare by Marcia Williams (Candlewick, 2000). And be sure not to forget her wonderful book, Tales from Shakespeare (Candlewick, 1998).

Gary L. Blackwood's The Shakespeare Stealer and Shakespeare's Scribe, are two terrific young adult novels about Shakespeare.

Novels

• Romeo and Juliet Together – (And Alive!) at Last by Avi (HarperTrophy, 1988).
• The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary L. Blackwood (Puffin, 1998). The sequel to this fantastic novel for young adults, Shakespeare's Scribe (Puffin, 2002), is just as good.
• The Playmaker by J.B. Cheaney (Knopf, 2000). His The True Prince (Knopf, 2002) is wonderful as well.
• King of Shadows by Susan Cooper (Aladdin, 2001).

Nonfiction

• William Shakespeare and the Globe by Aliki (HarperCollins, 1999)
• Shakespeare for Kids: His Life and Times: 21 Activities by Colleen Aagesen (Chicago Review Press, 1999).
• Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare by Diane Stanley (William Morrow, 1998).

Activities
Now that you've got plenty of books to begin your Shakespeare library, here are some great activity starters to get your students well on their way to understanding Shakespeare.

• William Shakespeare is considered a master at language play. Have your students list some of today's contemporary turns of phrase they think were coined by the Bard. Ask them to then try converting a paragraph of contemporary text into Shakespearean language.
• There's a long-running academic debate about whether or not the plays of William Shakespeare were authored by one person. What do your students think? Have them take the debate to the floor, with one student representing the side of the class that does believe Shakespeare acted alone and another representing the side that thinks there never was a William Shakespeare or better yet – what's their own theory? Make sure they cite examples from their reading to support their arguments.
• When Shakespeare's plays were first staged, performances had to take place during the day to take advantage of natural lighting. Since there was no lighting and little scenery or props, audience members relied on the actors' lines to supply information about the date and time of year, location and mood of the scenes. Ask students to list examples of this type of stage direction that they can find in any number of Shakespeare's plays. Why do they think that things like props and scenery were scarce?

Guest columnist Phyllis Fantauzzo is the Assistant Director of the Center for Reading and Writing at Rider University. She is also a certified school psychologist and teacher.