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Shakespeare for Kids
Shakespeare -- Wherefore Art Thou?: The Washington Post has this interesting article up about how Shakespeare can be just as appealing to kids as adults, citing lines like "creeping like a snail unwillingly to school" from As You Like It. Apparently the Folger Library's current exhibit, "Golden Lads and Lasses", is all about how Shakespeare's writing has been changed for kids over the centuries. There are toys, games, books, CDs...finger puppets, comic books, Barbies...
Love it. My daughter's not quite four yet and it pains me that I can't share Shakespeare with her quite yet (though I have tried). The Tempest is still "The story about the girl on the island," but every time we try to get into any more depth than that she gets confused by all the characters. Disney needs to do a Tempest movie :).
Gotta love this quote from Paloma, a sixth-grader: "Macbeth is my favorite," she said. (She read the adult version of that one.) "It's really cool. There are witches and prophecies and fighting and stuff. And the strongest character is a lady -- Macbeth's wife. Girl power!"
Someone's got to explain to that girl about the whole guilt theme and exactly what it did to Lady Macbeth's "strength" :)
Technorati Tags: macbeth, Shakespeare
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Shakespeare for Kids: Some of the Animated Shakespeare produced in England (should say Britain) a couple of years ago are good for kids - they are out there on DVD (saw some illegal versions in Shanghai, of all places).
The Midsummer Nights Dream and Twelfth Night have had youngsters giggling in my experience. And the Julius Casear is loved by your average budding thug.
The scripts are available too - and, for slightly older kids, Leon Garfield's Tales from Shakespeare, are stunning.
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