Monday, March 23, 2015

Book Note: The Young Reader's Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

McKeown, Adam. The Young Reader's Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet. Illus. Peter Fiore. New York: Sterling, 2003.

While trying to track down Michael Rosen and Jane Ray's version of Romeo and Juliet (for which, q.v.), I chanced upon another picture book version, and it has its compelling side as well.

Adam McKeown and Peter Fiore's version is much more detailed. It's almost a young adult novelization of the play. And their version frequently keeps close to the text—but not as close nor with as much care to indicate which words are Shakespeare's and which are the authors.

It's also a bit steamier than I'd expect from a picture book!

I'm providing an example of the same scene that I wrote about for Michael Rosen and Jane Ray's version of Romeo and Juliet: Romeo meets Juliet at the Capulet ball. Click on the image below to enlarge it.


That provides a good glimpse at the prose and its use of Shakespeare's words. It also gives you a hint of the illustrations, which are a bit more realistic than those in the previous version but with quite a bit of artistry.

Click below to purchase the book from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
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