My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was expecting that the odes of Shakespeare in this book will be much easier to understand as the target audience of this is kids. I appreciate that the publisher, Quarto Publishing Group, put the original of some of the famous poem of Shakespeare just like the well-known quotes, “To be, or not to be, that is the question” and “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”
The summary of the life of William Shakespeare was in the Introduction of the book; it is a great way to teach young children about who this marvelous and prominent personality in the world of literature. The book also has the “What William Was Thinking” part that contains the short explanation of each verse. In addition, there are definitions to some of the profound words used, and there are corresponding illustrations in each poem that will delight those who will check out this book. However, I hope that these odes were explained further in this children’s book so that kids could comprehend them better.
As a whole, I found that this book will please more the older readers such as parents and teachers. Kids might not be thrilled with the idea of reading the poems of Shakespeare because they are not in modern English, which makes them quite hard to understand. If only there were thorough explanations available, I’m certain that young readers will love and treasure this book because it will be a huge help, especially in their school homework.
