By Anna Claybourne Illustrated by Tilly
Everyone wants their kids to know a bit about Shakespeare, right? But most kids aren’t particularly enthused about “old fashioned” stories, written hundreds of years ago in strange not-quite-English language. Enter “Where’s Will?” – a fab combination of picture book retellings and Where’s Wally/Waldo style character hunts!
In this book, there are ten of Shakespeare’s most famous plays retold (As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet), with each having a double page spread, split up almost like a comic book with multiple illustrations telling the tale, followed by a double page illustration to hunt for selected characters – and Mr Shakespeare himself! The plays are of course, super simplified, but each introduces the setting, the basic plot and all the main characters beautifully, despite being reduced to a mere two pages.
My kids’ favourite bits, without a doubt, are the huge double spread character hunts that follow each retelling! Between 5 and 9 characters from each tale are hidden in a massive illustration of each story’s setting. They’re just lovely! And quite tricky! (Don’t worry – the answers are at the back for when that one person is driving you crazy!!!)
This book is a brilliant introduction to Shakespeare for little ones. The cute illustrations are colourful and engaging, and are well suited to the text. And with each play being self-contained within the book, it lends itself well to a story-a-day for your kids. Highly recommended!
Where’s Will? can be found at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com
A Different Way To Go 