Review
Stimulating a child's interest in Shakespeare has never been easier - there is a wealth of literature covering every aspect of his life and work. So is there really room for yet another book about the Bard? On the strength of Shakespeare and the Globe the answer must be a resounding 'yes'. This exquisitely illustrated book packs in an increadible amount of information about Shakespeare's life, yet the tone is never didactic. Aliki maintains an exhilarating pace, leaving the most 'unwilling schoolboy' eager to turn the page. Aliki concentrates on the later years of Shakespeare's life, especially his work at the Globe. Instead of finishing his book with Shakespeare's death, he draws us into the private dream of the late Sam Wanamaker - to see the Globe rise again. Picture by picture, we see the resurrected theatre taking shape on the page before our eyes, as Wanamaker's dream becomes our own. Will Shakespeare's immortality is assured; Aliki's inspirational book will encourage many children to read the plays and discover his magic for themselves. Review by MOllIE POTTS (Kirkus UK)
For Aliki (Marianthe's Story, 1998, etc.), the story of the Globe Theatre is a tale of two men: Shakespeare, who made it famous, and Sam Wanamaker, the driving force behind its modern rebuilding. Decorating margins with verbal and floral garlands, Aliki creates a cascade of landscapes, crowd scenes, diminutive portraits, and sequential views, all done with her trademark warmth and delicacy of line, allowing viewers to glimpse Elizabethan life and theater, historical sites that still stand, and the raising of the new Globe near the ashes of the old. She finishes with a play list, and a generous helping of Shakespearean coinages. Though the level of information doesn't reach that of Diane Stanley's Bard of Avon (1992), this makes a serviceable introduction to Shakespeare's times while creating a link between those times and the present; further tempt young readers for whom the play's the thing with Marcia Williams's Tales From Shakespeare (1998). (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
The story of William Shakespeare, his theatre and the rebuilding of the globe.
