I’ve heard great things about this series of Shakespeare Can Be Fun, but at $10 each I was hesitating. Amazon has them used for a variety of prices (as low as $2.50!) so I decided to grab the cheapest few and see what we thought. Our first arrived this week – Twelfth Night, which is where the name Olivia is first known to be used.

While the books are short, I feel like they actually do an excellent job conveying the story in rhyming couplet! It’s fun for me to read (bonus) and the kids are really engaged – several of them were reading it on their own. There are illustrations throughout from second graders and letters and journal entries from various characters (written also by the second graders.) It’s a really fun way to help your children learn the stories of Shakespeare – after which your kids will catch references in all sorts of places, from other stories to TV shows to advertisements they see! Shakespeare really has permeated our english speaking world, and these books are a great foundation for the kids to prepare them for the real plays.

(Yes, I do prefer these over the Lambs’ version though the Fun with Shakespeare series is a much smaller selection. Still, worth getting!)