Manga Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810994755 ISBN 13: 9780810994751

Publisher: Abrams Fanfare, 2008

Synopsis

The latest in the breakout series Manga Shakespeare, introducing teens to a new kind of Bard.

In one of Shakespeare’s funniest, most enduring stories, meddling fairies create unexpected love triangles among a group of teenagers. Hermia is in love with Lysander. Demetrius is in love with Hermia. Helena is in love with Demetrius. Add to the mix Puck, a fairy with a powerful love potion, and chaos is sure to follow. Now everyone’s in love with Helena, Hermia is hopping mad, and the fairy queen Titania is in love with a man with a donkey’s head! Using the style and visual language of manga, Kate Brown transforms Shakespeare’s world into something new and vibrant. It’s the perfect introduction to Shakespeare’s work for reluctant readers and manga fans alike.

F&P level: Z

About this title

About the Author

Kate Brown graduated with distinction from England’s only sequential-illustration course, specializing in graphic novels. Her work has been published in the Best New Manga series, and she has completed work for The Girly Comic.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–Shakespeare's classic play is retold with a significant effort by the publisher to preserve the language and tone of the original. And it's a successful effort; the dialogue remains mostly intact and Brown's clever layouts do a good job of both staging the action and providing a well-paced breakdown of the Shakespearean English, so that new or young readers will be better able to comprehend the sometimes-arcane language. However, Brown has a curious tendency to have the flow of word balloons drift from right to left. With this OEL adaptation paging from left to right, this occasionally makes the pages mildly confusing to read. An additional distraction is the decision to have the play set in an alternate world where people dress in Roman robes over mod-style shirts and trousers, and where futuristic telecoms exist alongside antique swords. And while the figure work may not be everyone's cup of tea–the boys are cute in a yaoi sort of way, while the girls have a wide-eyed awkwardness, and noses disappear and reappear continually–the storytelling and layouts show a high level of craft and succeed in portraying much of the humor of the play.–Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH
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About this edition

• Publisher: Abrams Fanfare
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0810994755
• ISBN 13: 9780810994751
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208
• Illustrator: Brown Kate