Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare

by Diane Stanley, Diane Stanley (Illustrator), Peter Vennema

Overview

Celebrate 400 years of Shakespeare's legacy with this repackage of award-winning author Diane Stanley's tribute to the world-famous playwright William Shakespeare. 

Nobody knows exactly when or why William Shakespeare left his boyhood home of Stratford-on-Avon for the great city of London, but it didn't take long for him to make a name for himself. His plays are now performed almost every day in just about every part of the world; even people who've never seen them use words and phrases he introduced into the English language.

How did a man from an unremarkable family create a legacy that the world, even 400 years after his death, has never forgotten? There will always be unsolved mysteries about Shakespeare, but what we do know of his life, his times, and his theater makes for a very dramatic story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062419255
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/27/2015
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	346,914
Product dimensions:	9.25(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.00(d)
Lexile:	1030L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 10 Years

About the Author

Diane Stanely is the author and illustrator of beloved books for young readers, including The Silver Bowl, named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and an ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice; The Cup and the Crown; The Princess of Cortova; Saving Sky, winner of the Arab American Book Award; Bella at Midnight, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and an ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice; The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy; The Mysterious Matter of I. M. Fine; The Chosen Prince; and Joplin, Wishing.

Ms. Stanley has written and illustrated numerous picture books, including three creatively reimagined fairy tales, The Giant and the Beanstalk, Goldie and the Three Bears, and Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter, and an award-winning series of picture book biographies. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can visit her online at www.dianestanley.com.

Diane Stanely is the author and illustrator of beloved books for young readers, including The Silver Bowl, named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and an ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice; The Cup and the Crown; The Princess of Cortova; Saving Sky, winner of the Arab American Book Award; Bella at Midnight, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and an ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice; The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy; The Mysterious Matter of I. M. Fine; The Chosen Prince; and Joplin, Wishing.

Ms. Stanley has written and illustrated numerous picture books, including three creatively reimagined fairy tales, The Giant and the Beanstalk, Goldie and the Three Bears, and Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter, and an award-winning series of picture book biographies. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can visit her online at www.dianestanley.com.

Editorial Reviews

"A remarkably rounded picture of Shakespeare's life and the period in which he lived is presented--together with a thoughtful attempt to relate circumstances in his personal life to the content of his plays. Especially interesting is the description of the actors of the time....The text is splendidly supported by the illustrations...and present a clear view of life in the late sixteenth century. A discerning, knowledgeable biography, rising far above the ordinary."

Horn Book

In this compact, informative biography, Stanley and Vennema return to the 16th-century England they portrayed so deftly in Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth of England . These seasoned raconteurs have sorted out historical facts, speculation and conjecture to neatly piece together the puzzle of Shakespeare's life. Their conversational narrative, aided by Stanley's typically stunning, intricate period paintings, recount the Bard's early years in Stratford-on-Avon, where he was introduced to drama through the performances of traveling troupes; his years in London, working first as an actor and then as a playwright who wrote quickly and rarely revised his work; the changes in England's political climate--and in Shakespeare's own life--that led him to forsake comedies and pen his magnificent tragedies; and final years in Stratford, living as a country gentleman. A postscript discussing some of the words and phrases Shakespeare created (such as ``hurry,'' ``leapfrog,'' ``tongue-tied,'' ``laughingstock'') underscores his indelible, ongoing legacy, which Stanley and Vennema perpetuate most gracefully. Ages 7-up. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 3 Up-- This is a wonderful book. A fine companion biography to Good Queen Bess (Four Winds, 1990), this life of Shakespeare builds on the methods developed in Bess and Shaka, King of the Zulus (Morrow, 1988). Using the few facts known about their subject, Stanley and Vennema manage a full-bodied portrait of a life and time without resorting to fictionalizing or sloppy speculation. In fact, the book starts with an appealing invitation to examine the historical research process. And, without wasting words in pedantic explanation, it keeps readers on a firm footing regarding the scholarly basis of any assertion. In the course of a brief text, the authors manage to touch not only upon the life but also upon important aspects of many of the major plays. There is even a tantalizing postscript with introductory glimpses of the development of the English language. As with their previous works, the authors provide a short but meaty bibliography. Stanley's distinctive full-color gouache paintings are clearly her own, and just as clearly planted firmly in archival research. They reinforce and expand the text with humor and movement. As icing on the cake, the generous open space and attractive page decoration rival the production given Shaka . Books like these need only be displayed to attract readers. And once opened, they keep their promise. Lucky kids! --Sally Margolis, Deerfield Public Library, IL

School Library Journal