Posted in Usborne Books

Studying Shakespeare

My 11-year-old son has been studying Shakespeare this year. I came across the book The Usborne World of Shakespeare  at a Scholastic book sale last summer and was excited to find a book on his level that would introduce Shakespeare.  This is one of their Internet Linked books and I have to say I am very impressed with it.  The book alone is a wealth of information.  It starts out teaching about who Shakespeare was and what the times he lived in were like.  Then it goes through explanations of the types of plays he did.  (Comedies, tragedies, problem plays, romances and historicals) Next comes Poems & Songs, Issues in Shakespeare and the Language of Shakespeare.  The final pages are about Shakespeare through the ages, acting & performing Shakespeare.  I am happy with the introduction this book gave my son to Shakespeare.  I also like that he was able to for the most part work through the book on his own.  

Here are some of the websites I found particularly interesting:

Mr. Shakespeare & the Internet

In Search Of Shakespeare

Shakespeare Quotes

The Internet Movie Database

and of course just for laughs…

Shakespeare Insult Service

There are literally hundreds of other Internet sites you can investigate in the book.  (We have done many and will be continuing to work through them in the weeks to come.)

In the back of the book there is a brief synopsis of  38 of Shakespeare’s plays.  Which are nice to read before you dive into the actual text.

My sons favorite thing he's learned from this study is about all the phrases & words in our current day language that came from Shakespeare.

All’s well that ends well!