Tales from Shakespeare: Henry V

Review also includes:

Tales from Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, 978-1784930066

‎If retellings of Shakespeare’s stories should both offer immediate entertainment and prepare young learners for enjoying the plays later on these books succeed. They each tell an interesting but complicated  Shakespeare story well, partly by using quite a lot of  lively direct speech which enlightens about motives and personality.

The design of the books makes them inviting: they are pleasant to handle and the pages uncluttered. The print style gives a sense of antiquity while being easy to read. The pen and ink drawings, sometimes coloured in a restricted palette, are splendidly detailed; as well as informing  about clothes, armour, events and emotions, they often communicate a sense of drama.  In Henry V there is a full page picture of Henry leading his troops through the breach of Honfleur and, in Julius Caesar, the horror of Caesar’s assassination is dramatically shown.

I like the way the author brings in apt quotations from Shakespeare’s plays, presented on scrolls throughout the books.  But these are short and perhaps some longer speeches might have been included to introduce children more fulsomely to the unique power and rhythms of Shakespeare’s language. For example there might usefully have been a longer extract from Henry’s rousing pre battle speech and from Mark Antony’s tribute to the dead Julius Caesar. Nevertheless I find these two stories are told with life and pace and explain convincingly the motivations of the characters.  The reasons for Henry’s seemingly harsh decisions – to abandon Falstaff, the friend of his carefree, youthful days, and not to pardon looters – are made clear.  Well explained also is the way Cassius and his friends justified the brutal murder of Caesar.  These stories would have a well-deserved place in the upper primary school collection.