The Bard

Stanley, Diane. Bard of Avon the Story of William Shakespeare. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1992.
ISBN 0-688-09109-1

Summary:

This biography of Shakespeare is incredibly informative and entertaining. It covers the early life of Shakespeare through his death and very gently, but accurately handles some of the more controversial issues that surrounds parts of Shakespeare’s life. For example, in reference to his sonnets:

Some were written to a “fair youth” and others to a “dark lady.”

There was also a ‘rival poet.’ Historians have been trying ever

since to discover who these important people in Shakespeare’s life

might have been.

This picture book is heavy on text, and covers more than just Shakespeare’s life. It includes information about stage design, popular actors of the time, and general information about the influence of Elizabethan England on the theater.

Stanley provides a bibliography at the back of the book, and stars the books that would be helpful to young readers doing their own research on Shakespeare. This gives certain credibility to an enjoyable, very literary book.

Reviews

“One of the things that both children and adults are likely to enjoy about this book is its creators' recognition of the difference between historic and imagination-based story events.”

Reading Onlilne (June 1999)

"These seasoned raconteurs...neatly piece together the puzzle of Shakespeare's life,"

Publishers Weekly (July 31, 1998)

Enrichment Activity:

This book is definitely a book for “tweens,” (readers about 10-13 years old) which, with the popularity of myspace and facebook with this age group, lends itself to the use of technology. Students could use Powerpoint to create a “myspace” profile all about Shakespeare. This gives the students a chance to use what they learned about him in this book to make it factual, and then go a step beyond that to come up with what band’s music would play on his page, and create pictures of his “top eight friends” like: Queen Elizabeth, or Romeo, or even Diane Stanley, the author of the biography.