This week, Anne Cramer contributes the guest blog post. She is one of the deligent participants in our National Book Award Project. She reminds us that a little bit of Shakespeare in your YA life is never a bad thing. Whether you are Shakespeare purist or one who experiments with other possibilities; Anne points you to some interesting titles and resources.
- Man, full of self-importance, demands loyalty before dividing wealth among his children.
- Women don pantsuits, want to be taken seriously by society.
- Ruler faces high level of criticism due to Middle Eastern descent.
- Husband disappears in Aleppo; Powerful men, claiming to be ordained by God, fight to rule a country, no matter the consequences.
- Teen runs away from home; parents heartbroken. [1]
- Man persecuted due to his religion and his job. [2]
“A rose by any other name may still smell as sweet” but I disagree. Today, it is all about presentation. It is important to hand adolescents versions of Shakespeare’s plays that they can connect to, ones that provide a variety of ways to scaffold and support independent readers. Without these, any teen would groan and curse his name.
Over 16 years, I surveyed a variety of versions for young adult audiences. Without a doubt, the Cambridge School Shakespeare series captures the wide interests of many readers. With the original text on the right side, the left side provides a one-to-two sentence summary of events, comprehension questions, and vocabulary definitions. Photos from different productions are strewn throughout the books, highlighting the role of costumes, set design, and actor interpretations. The last 30 pages provide a brief summary of the whole play, character summaries, imagery and thematic explorations, as well as ideas to help explore interpretations of the plays.
Over 16 years, I surveyed a variety of versions for young adult audiences. Without a doubt, the Cambridge School Shakespeare series captures the wide interests of many readers. With the original text on the right side, the left side provides a one-to-two sentence summary of events, comprehension questions, and vocabulary definitions. Photos from different productions are strewn throughout the books, highlighting the role of costumes, set design, and actor interpretations. The last 30 pages provide a brief summary of the whole play, character summaries, imagery and thematic explorations, as well as ideas to help explore interpretations of the plays.
It is important to remember that each work is a play, not a sedentary text. To truly appreciate Shakespeare, one must perform the words and actions. Shakespeare's works do not include dialogue tags, describe action sequences, or discuss how characters move. Shakespeare never envisioned his works to be read, only to be performed. The actors’ interpretations of the text bring the missing ingredient to the magic of the Bard’s works. Cambridge School Shakespeare editions provide examples, small group performance ideas, and internet links to enhance the performance aspect of each play.
Shakespeare did not write for the upper-class or highly educated. He would be more at home in a Jerry Springer episode than on PBS documentary. A man who frequently “borrowed” plot lines and reused names would be thoroughly impressed and delighted by a new generation of writers recycling his stories. The long and the short of it: getting a book in the hands of an adolescent can be a gateway to bigger and more challenging texts. Many of Shakespeare’s characters challenged the status-quo. I like to think that the books below do the same.
This first group of titles are abridged works that can be enjoyed independently or partnered with the original texts to deepen comprehension and aid prior knowledge. Cass Foster’s 60-Minute Shakespeare series contains artfully edited versions of the Bard’s original texts, keeping correct meter and verse. OMG Shakespeare! series are hysterical translations of The Bard’s most popular plays written as emoji conversations. Gareth Hinds' graphic novels (four titles and still expanding) use both fonts and colors to actualize the tones, emotions, and settings of the plays. He shares his artistic process with the reader, directly tying his illustrations to the time period and the text.
Fan fiction continues to be a popular venue for adolescents, both in creating and reading. Since one can have too much of a good thing, this is an abridged list of titles. Lisa Klein offers a perspective for female characters in her first-person narratives Ophelia and Lady Macbeth's Daughter. Popular author Caroline B. Cooney weaves a thrilling novel from the perspective of a young woman observing the demise of the Macbeth family in Enter Three Witches. Moving the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet into modern day settings are Sharon Draper's Romiette and Julio and Gordan Korman’s Son of the Mob. Lauren Bjorkman hilariously illustrates the wild-goose chase of crossdressed lovers simultaneously incorporating the LGBTQ themes in many of Shakespeare’s comedies through staging a production of As You Like It in her first novel, My Invented Life.
In one of the more unique retellings of Shakespeare’s plays, writer Ryan North created two witty chose-your-own adventure novels Romeo and/or Juliet and To Be or Not To Be. The novels are riddled with references to other plays. YA fans will wait with bated breath as they select a new path. The books will attract both veterans and the newly initiated Shakespeare readers.
My last two selections are We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnson. The 2014 SLJ Battle of The Books Undead Poll winner, We Were Liars is a reimagining of the power struggle between Lear and his three daughters. Exit, Pursued by a Bear retells A Winter’s Tale, boldly challenging the outdated notion of women as property and reshaping the narrative into a powerful commentary on date rape and rape culture. Both books step out from underneath the shadow of Shakespeare through strengthening the female characters and allowing them to shape their own destiny. In my heart of hearts, I believe that the right book can make any young adult appreciate Shakespeare, his timely themes, and his role in shaping the modern English language. I hope that I provided a few.
For readers who love nonfiction:
Will's Words: How William Shakespeare Changed the Way You Talk
William Shakespeare & The Globe
The World of Shakespeare
See Inside the World of Shakespeare
Shakespeare: His Words and His World
While I did not include books with Shakespeare as a character or books that create Shakespearean mysteries, I cannot leave out, in good conscious, The Wednesday Wars, which is the best argument for why Shakespeare is relevant to today’s young adults. For all the middle schoolers who will not budge an inch.
Will's Words: How William Shakespeare Changed the Way You Talk
William Shakespeare & The Globe
The World of Shakespeare
See Inside the World of Shakespeare
Shakespeare: His Words and His World
While I did not include books with Shakespeare as a character or books that create Shakespearean mysteries, I cannot leave out, in good conscious, The Wednesday Wars, which is the best argument for why Shakespeare is relevant to today’s young adults. For all the middle schoolers who will not budge an inch.
Anne Cramer is a Middle School teacher of social studies, ELA, and theater at Peachtown Elementary School in upstate NY. 2013 Winner of American Shakespeare Center's Words in Action Award. She can be contacted at: acramer2@oswego.edu
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