Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet - Hardcover

Rosen, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0763622583 ISBN 13: 9780763622589

Publisher: Candlewick, 2003

Synopsis

The bard's quintessential love story — retold in an elegantly illustrated volume that will appeal both to aficionados of Shakespeare's play and to readers discovering it for the first time.

The story has been told "many times by many different people in many different languages," notes Michael Rosen. Now the acclaimed author of SHAKESPEARE: HIS WORK AND HIS WORLD presents the Bard's best-loved play — perhaps of all time — in a beautiful picture book for children. Michael Rosen retells ROMEO AND JULIET scene by scene in a simple, lively style that incorporates the most celebrated passages in their original form, while a border on each spread offers act and scene references and a glossary of difficult words. Exquisite illustrations by Jane Ray complete the production, making this an edition to enthrall the eye as well as the ear.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Rosen is an award-winning author and anthologist of books for young readers, including SHAKESPEARE: HIS WORK AND HIS WORLD. He says, "Reading a whole Shakespeare play can be a daunting prospect for many young people. We hit on the idea of using Shakespeare's words, edited down, with a linking script and illustrations."

Jane Ray is an internationally acclaimed illustrator of children's books. She says, "ROMEO AND JULIET is, of course, a story of contrasts — love and hate, youth and old age, life and death — all of which makes for some wonderful visual opportunities. Although it is fashionable to place Shakespearean drama in alternative historical settings, I was never tempted to move it from 16th-century Italy because of the wealth of sumptuous costumes and architecture available to draw from."

Reviews

Grade 5-9--This version of the eternally popular tale of star-crossed lovers uses clear, paraphrased prose and poetic lines quoted from Shakespeare's original to enable readers to comprehend the intricacies of the story's interwoven plots. The book begins with a short introduction to Elizabethan society and an illustrated explanation of the cast of characters. Dividing the text into acts and scenes, Rosen summarizes much of the action in language that maintains the integrity of the play. Shakespearean passages are highlighted in bold print and unfamiliar words are explained in sidebar definitions. The adapter's prologue and endnote place the narrative in the context of a theatrical performance. The prose is readable and will lend itself to young thespians wanting to dramatize either individual scenes or an abridged version of the whole epic. Ray's fine watercolor artwork, though stylized, realistically portrays the characters and climactic moments. The artist also uses some rather surrealistic images to suggest the content of Romeo's dreams. The eyes of her characters are particularly haunting in their intensity. Most of the illustrations are full page, but numerous smaller paintings further elucidate the text or break up longer passages. Subdued wallpaperlike borders repeating a design of ferns and feathers appear throughout. Taking a more scriptlike approach than Bruce Coville's William Shakespeare's Romeo andJuliet(Dial, 1999), this version will serve as a fine introduction, particularly in literature and drama classes, to perhaps the most romantic of Shakespeare's tragedies.--Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI
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Gr. 7-10. Weaving together pieces of Shakespeare's text with chatty commentary and sumptuous, theatrical illustrations, this picture book makes the great drama of star-crossed lovers accessible without sacrificing the eloquence of the original play. On each double-page spread, Shakespeare's words are in bold type, explained and connected by Rosen's informal narrative ("but their lovemaking had to stop when the talkative old Nurse came up to them"). References and a glossary are placed in a border on each left-hand page. Rosen frames the story with an account of the Elizabethan theater, and Ray's bright, meticulously detailed watercolors capture the original sixteenth-century Italian setting with a gorgeous sense of the costumed cast on stage. Some pictures evoke Shakespeare's imagery with an element of fantasy, as in the delicate view of the queen of the fairies in her tiny wagon. Romeo is brown-skinned; Juliet is white, and the most moving scenes show them meeting, talking, kissing, and then forever apart. Far from the usual bland retellings, this version will excite readers to seek out the play on stage. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0763622583
• ISBN 13: 9780763622589
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Ray Jane
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80