Friday, May 20, 2011

Shakespeare...

Gabriella finished Mattimeo (432 pages), Brian Jacques.
Marcus finished Mariel of Redwall (387 pages ), Brian Jacques.

This summer I am reading Shakespearean plays to the children.

I found a book called Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children, E. Nesbitt, that is wonderful, in narrative form, and easy enough to follow.  We have read:  The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As you Like It, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors, and The Taming of the Shrew. 

At the end I ask, "Did the story go from bad to good or good to bad?"

If they answer, "good to bad," then the play is a tragedy.
If they answer, "bad to good," then the play is a comedy.

Very simple, yes, but it gets the job done.

I also really like the series that is based on the animated tales as seen on HBO years and years ago.  Shakespeare, the Animated Tales is abridged by Leon Garfield, and has fun illustrations.  The stories read like plays, and keep much of the original language and poetic forms.  Our library even had four of the animated tales (vhs tapes!) that we checked out and watched.  The kids LOVED watching the tales after reading the plays. 

A short series that Marcus and Lella read and enjoyed is called The Buddy Files, Dori Hillestad Butler.  Each book is about 130 pages, and super easy to read.  There are five books in the series, and Marcus and Lella have read three of the five.  The main character is a Golden Retriever named Buddy, and he solves mysteries.  "Buddy speaks "dog" so all humans hear is barking," Marcus commented.

Gabriella has been enjoying these two series (easy reads):
Houndsley and Catina, James Howe - Gabriella enjoys them, "because they are funny have lots of adventure in them."
Bunnicula and friends, James Howe