2015, Teen & Young Adult, Literature & Fiction
WISE Score
Amazon
The 'training wheels' version of the Bard that actually keeps the sharp edges and poetic soul instead of sanding them down into a boring summary.
4.5
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Most 'Shakespeare for kids' books are soul-crushingly boring summaries that read like a dry Wikipedia page. Leon Garfield actually liked the guy, so he kept the grit, the ghosts, and the gorgeous language.
It’s dense, sure, but it’s the good kind of dense—the kind that makes a kid feel like they’re actually reading 'real' literature instead of a pamphlet. If you want them to not hate English class in three years, start here. It's a high-quality, zero-brain-rot investment.
Perfect for the 10-14 crowd. 9-year-olds can handle it as a read-aloud, but the emotional complexity and vocabulary really land best with middle schoolers.
It handles heavy themes like betrayal, madness, and ambition with a literary maturity that respects the reader's intelligence without being gratuitous.
Garfield doesn't just summarize; he recreates the atmosphere of the plays. It encourages kids to visualize complex worlds beyond the basic plot points.
It's a book, so there's zero digital risk. Content-wise, it contains the expected Shakespearean violence (poisonings, sword fights), but it’s presented within a classic literary framework.
This is a vocabulary goldmine. It bridges the gap between modern English and Elizabethan prose by weaving original lines into the narrative seamlessly.
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