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"How many ages hence/ Shall this our lofty scene be acted over/ In states unborn and accents yet unknown!" In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, he prophesies his own future more accurately than he may ever have dreamed. Although Shakespeare's works have touched people everywhere, very little is known of his life. Well-loved author and illustrator Aliki pulls together clues from writings, drawings, history, birth, marriage, and death records, and from Shakespeare's own plays, in this vibrant introduction to one of the greatest writers of all time.
Cleverly arranged as a play, with an aside and acts one through five, the book features a quotation from one of Shakespeare's plays on every spread. Bite-sized chunks of text are interspersed with the lovely detailed illustrations Aliki is famous for, making what might be a difficult subject very accessible. In addition, there are charts listing Shakespeare's plays, a chronology of his life, sidebars with mini-biographies of significant people in his life, and a partial list of words and expressions he invented (gloomy, moonbeam, mountaineer, zany, and bated breath, among 2,000 others!). Aliki also devotes a special section to Sam Wanamaker, a 20th-century man with a dream to reopen Shakespeare's Globe playhouse in London. (Ages 7 and older) --Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
William Shakespeare may get top billing in the title of this picture book, but the emphasis within is less certain. Aliki (Mummies Made in Egypt) doesn't investigate Shakespeare as a personality; dividing her work into five "acts," she focuses more on Elizabethan culture, dramatic conventions and living conditions, then shifts to Sam Wanamaker and the process of renovating the Globe in the 20th century. Aliki employs serviceable, almost pedestrian statements to convey the history, stretching occasionally toward cleverness. Of the open-ceilinged Globe, she comments, "When it rained, [the audience] knew it." The material on Wanamaker's restoration sheds light on the process by which the new Globe was built ("The first and only thatched roof in London since 1666"), although the character of Sam, with whom readers are meant to identify, remains bland. Pages are loaded with small panel illustrations of characters and historic figures in exaggerated poses. They capture a jolly theatrical spirit (nearly everyone in the quaint colored-pencil pictures wears a gentle smile), yet the many crowd scenes do not repay scrutiny. Unlike Diane Stanley's work in Bard of Avon, these pictures give only a broad idea of the historical context. Quotations from the bard populate the margins, and numerous appendixes provide facts. The wide range of information here makes this book a useful introduction to Elizabethan theater, despite its disparate themes and generalized pictures. All ages. (May) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-While this is one of the most appealing and responsible biographies of Shakespeare for this audience since Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema's Bard of Avon (Morrow, 1992), it is also a history of the Globe of the 17th century and of the recently completed facsimile of the theater built through the persistent efforts of Sam Wanamaker, an American actor. On the title page, readers see a picture of a boy sitting under a portrait of Shakespeare, constructing a model of the Globe. Sam's story is related in "Act Five" (the book is divided into acts and scenes rather than chapters). With deft economy of words, Aliki covers a broad range of Elizabethan theater history in addition to Shakespeare's life. She sets out the scenes in Stratford and London, and discusses the basics of playhouse building, Marlowe, Jonson, Elizabeth I, James I, principal actors, the plague, and something of the plays without losing focus. Her lively cartoon illustrations, which would pair quite happily with Marcia Williams's Tales from Shakespeare (Candlewick, 1998), blend with more finished framed portraits, maps, playhouse designs, and scenes from London life to expand and explain the spare text, both in picture and caption. Pertinent quotations from the plays are set as grace notes outside the main text. Addenda include a list of plays and poems, sites to visit, and an intriguing sampler of words and expressions found in Shakespeare. A thoroughly enjoyable and reliable introduction to the Bard.Sally Margolis, Barton Public Library, VT Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Grade 3-6-This captivating biography introduces the real-life players and masterfully scripts historical events. Engaging illustrations and an impressive amount of information make this presentation a hit. (May) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Parents' Choice®
Fond of depicting small people, Aliki relies on body language to express actions and emotions. Her characters act and emote across the original stage of Shakespeare's theater and during its recent rebuilding. A delightful way to be educated. A 1999 Parents' Choice® Gold Award Winner. (Kemie Nix, Parents' Choice®).
From Booklist
Aliki takes on an ambitious project and completes it with a pervasive sense of history and fine sense of style. Her obvious love of Shakespeare and his theater shines through in the warmth of the presentation as well as her meticulous attention to illustrative detail. The many scenes of life in Elizabethan England will be absorbing to children, but some of Aliki's most sensitive work can be seen in her miniature portraits of key historical figures. Quotations from the plays appear throughout the book, in the front matter, in the margins, and as an unofficial epilogue. These short phrases bring Shakespeare's voice to the book, and the text itself demonstrates a good sense of what to include and exclude as it details what is known and surmised about the writer's life. Framing the central story is the tale of Sam Wanamaker (1919^-1993), an actor and director whose ambition was to rebuild the Globe. Thus, the book goes beyond Shakespeare himself to introduce the team of people who worked, researched, raised money, and built a replica of the Globe, where performances bring the playwright's words to life in something very like their original setting. Students looking for an introduction to Shakespeare and his playhouse will find this an excellent starting place. Carolyn Phelan
From Kirkus Reviews
PLB 0-06-027821-8 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). (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Book Description
William Shakespeare was perhaps the greatest English playwright ever. Take a tour of Shakespeare's life and times, through the crowded streets of sixteenth-century London to the boisterous Globe theater and other playhouses where his work flourished. Then follow Shakespeare's legacy to the present day and to the Globe's glorious reopening and its 400th anniversary. Learn, step-by-step, how the theater was reconstructed using the same methods builders used to construct the original Globe. With Aliki's characteristically thorough and animated words and pictures, this beautifully crafted book provides a rich introduction to Shakespeare and his world. Sprinkled with quotations from Shakespeare's plays, it is richly enhanced by a map of Elizabethan London, a glossary of historical dates, a chronology of Shakespeare's works, a section of colloquial expressions, and a list of relevant sites to visit.2000 ALA Notable Children's Book 2000 Notable Children's Books (ALA), Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2000, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council , NCTE List of Notable Children's Books in Lang. Arts 00, Horn Book Fanfare 2000 and Teacher's Choices for 2000 (IRA) 01-02 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr 4-6), 00-01 Utah Book Award (Informational Books), and 00-01 Texas Bluebonnet Award Masterlist
Card catalog description
Tells the story of the well-known playwright, William Shakespeare, and of the famous Globe Theatre in which many of his works were performed.
About the Author
Aliki is the author and illustrator of more than fifty books for children that are treasured by readers all over the world. Her many well-loved titles include My Visit to the Zoo, My Visit to the Aquarium, My Visit to the Dinosaurs, Wild and Woolly Mammoths, Tabby, and Those Summers. Aliki lives near the Globe theater, in London, England.In Her Own Words..."Aliki grew up in Philadelphia in a big Greek family where everyone was busy creating and sharing their activities. She knew from the time she was in kindergarten that she wanted to bean artist, although music was also a natural talent. She was encouraged throughout her early life by her parents and by teachers she will never forget."She graduated from the Philadelphia Collegeof Art and started a career in advertising art. After she married Franz Brandenberg, Aliki continued her career in his country, Switzerland, where they lived for three years. It was there that she wrote and illustrated her first book, The Story of William Tell, which was published in England. When they moved to New York, Aliki wrote and illustrated My Five Senses--the book that changed the direction of her career and her life."Although she had never thought of being a writer, Aliki has been making books ever since. Children's books, she says, are a combination of two things I love: words and pictures. I also love the privacy of books--both reading them and making them. Aliki writes fiction, in which she can express her feelings, and nonfiction research books about subjects she's interested in and wants to know more about. Each book is a new challenge; each is different, she says. The subject directs the way I illustrate a book, the same way friends bring out different parts of us. The challenge is to get the words right and then to make pictures that expand and enhance their meaning.""Besides her own books, Aliki has illustrated many written by Franz Brandenberg and other authors. Her two children are also in the arts. Jason is a filmmaker and Alexa is a children's book author-illustrator. They appear in almost all of her books as cats, mice, or themselves. "Aliki loves music, theater, cinema, museums, children, her cat, Nefertiti, and working in her garden in London, where she lives. She travels frequently to the U.S., Greece, Switzerland, and other parts of the world, though most of the time she is alone in her studio with the books she is working on--and Mozart."
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