Thursday, March 8, 2018

Book Note: Shakespeare: Investigate the Bard's Influence on Today's World

Diehn, Andi. Shakespeare: Investigate the Bard's Influence on Today's World. Illus. Samuel Carbaugh. White River Junction: Nomad Press, 2016.

The number of resources on Shakespeare for grade-school kids increases every year. Some are tremendous, some are mediocre, and some are very bad indeed. But there's often not much to tell them apart. But Shakespeare: Investigate the Bard's Influence on Today's World stands out.

It's the only one (so far) for which I provided editorial advice.

That means that a lot of the myths often presented as facts are absent from this volume. And it also means that the dates are correct and the names of the characters in the plays are spelled correctly.

Beyond that, it's a good, solid introduction to Shakespeare's life and times. Further, it continually connects Shakespeare's themes, plots, and characters to the present day, demonstrating the relevance of Shakespeare with subtlety and flair.

I'm providing a two-page spread as an example. The book is highly-readable and has many interesting sidebars that enhance rather than distract from the main body of the book.


Shakespeare: Investigate the Bard's Influence on Today's World is an excellent resource, whether used as classroom or homeschool curriculum or just read for its own merits. 

Click below to purchase the book from amazon.com
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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
All material original to this blog is copyrighted: Copyright 2008-2039 (and into perpetuity thereafter) by Keith Jones.

The very instant that I saw you did / My heart fly to your service; there resides, / To make me slave to it; and, for your sake, / Am I this patient [b]log-man.

—The Tempest