Stories from Shakespeare

by Geraldine McCaughrean

Ten of Shakespeare's greatest plays, retold for children by multi-award winning author Geraldine McCaughrean.

From love, jealousy, greed and betrayal to mad kings, magic and murder, Geraldine McCaughrean retells some of Shakespeare's best-known stories, including Romeo and Juliet, Henry the Fifth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and The Tempest.

With easy to follow prose punctuated with well-known quotations and featuring a cast list for each play, this accessible collection will delight and entertain readers of all ages.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Shakespeare, Childrens

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Geraldine McCaughrean is a British children's novelist. She has written more than 170 books, including Peter Pan in Scarlet (2004), the official sequel to Peter Pan commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the holder of Peter Pan's copyright. Her work has been translated into 44 languages worldwide. She has received the Carnegie Medal twice and the Michael L. Printz Award among others.

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this well crafted volume, Geraldine McCaughrean takes ten of Shakespeare's best loved plays and recrafts them into exciting stories for for teenagers and young adults, recapturing the narratives, events and characters of each Shakespeare story.
As we explore tales of greed, love, lust, vengeance, betrayal, tragedy and confusion, we meet kings, generals, knights, witches, ghosts, fairies and monsters.
The author adds her own analysis of events with some interesting observations.
She observes how Friar Laurence would have done far better to have spoken up to Juliet's parents that Juliet could not marry Paris, as she was already married to Romeo, Hamlet's dilemma of choosing between an unpleasant life and the fear of a more horrible afterlife if he chooses suicide, she informs reader that Illyria where Twelfth Night is set, is modern day Albania, that the baby that the fairy king, Oberon steals from the fairy queen, Titania is an Indian changeling, and observes after the closing of King Lear how "those were dark days still with no dazzling new dawn to light the way ahead. what does man find out about himself, after all, when suffering strips him bare, What is he, a candle burning on a rainy night? waiting for the storm to blow out."
A great introduction to the world of Shakespeare for young readers.

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

So indeed, Geraldine McCaughrean's Stories From Shakespeare is obviously not in any way as extensive and as involved as Mary and Charles Lamb’s classic Tales From Shakespeare (as while the Lambs provide prose adaptations of twenty Shakespeare plays, Geraldine McCaughrean only presents ten). But personally, I actually do definitely consider Stories From Shakespeare rather more suitable for younger readers than Tales From Shakespeare. For Stories From Shakespeare is in my humble opinion quite bit more simple and therefore also more easily accessible in set-up and scope, and yes, I do much appreciate that Geraldine’s McCaughrean’s prose renditions are accompanied by excerpts of the actual plays themselves, which though are also removed from the actual storyline of the presented prose renderings and could thus and of course be skipped if required and wanted, while with the Lamb siblings, the fact that their Shakespeare story adaptations generally feature a sometimes a bit dense and convoluted combination of prose and dramatics, this does in my opinion make Tales From Shakespeare considerably more potentially difficult for children (and especially younger children) than with the more simple and streamlined writing style featured in Stories From Shakespeare.

And furthermore, even though Geraldine McCaughrean only features ten Shakespeare prose adaptations in Stories From Shakespeare, I do very much find it cheering that unlike with Charles and Mary Lamb (who in Tales From Shakespeare totally ignore both Shakespeare’s British history and his Roman plays), McCaughrean has adapted both Henry V and Julius Caesar, for me, Stories From Shakespeare is indeed a solid four star ranking and a book I would definitely recommend as a great introduction to Shakespeare for children (for children from the age of eight or so onwards).

[Ivy-Mabel Fling · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many Shakespeare plays I have not read and I don't find the language easy, thus this CD has been a huge help to me: the characters and plots are described relatively briefly (and clearly) and, having heard the summary, I think I shall be able to read the originals. Although this series of CDs is intended for children, it seems to me that many adults would benefit from it.

[Angel]

I needed a children's version of Shakespeare's stories to read to my co-op class. There are multiple copies on my shelf, but Geraldine McCaughrean's seemed to be the perfect length for my class periods. It will be hard to rate. I feel that some of the plays were condensed and represented well for the kids, and then others left out some details that I thought were important. Overall, of the few plays in this book that I hadn't read, it gave me the gist of what was going on and that's the point.

[Jeniann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I would have been able to read this book along with reading Shakespeare when I was introduced to Shakespeare for the first time. It would have helped make Shakespeare a lot more appealing, interesting, and understandable. This author retells some of the stories of Shakespeare and makes them really fun to read.

[Jean-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read "Julius Caesar" to complement our ancient Rome history lesson. The retelling was just the right length for my 7-year-old. I plan to return to this book and its other retellings when we study more Shakespeare in the coming year.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's so much easier to understand, without the medieval language, and in story form! I think knowing the basic story before actually reading the original plays really helps to understand them better.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful way to get an overview of the classic tales.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, easy read with pictures that appeal to children. A good read-aloud.

[Renelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a long time a, and I read it again as I found it among my old school books.

[Autumn George · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, it really helped me understand Shakespeare's classics.

[Praveen Nand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed these easy read short story's of some of shakespheres most popular plays with excepts from the originals included, would definitely recommend to young readers new to the classic playwright. I hate picking favourites when so many of them are so amazing...so I don't bother anymore.