The Horn Book Guide

LITERATURE

McKeown, Adam, Reteller

A Midsummer Night's Dream

80 pp. | Sterling | October, 2009 | Trade ISBN 978-1-4027-3630-8 $14.95

(4) 4-6 Young Reader's Shakespeare series. Illustrated by Antonio Javier Caparo. This freely adapted prose retelling of Shakespeare's comedy includes some lines from the actual play. The text focuses on the broadest elements of the tale's humor and emphasizes them with comical fairy-heavy digital illustrations, some awkwardly posed. Short chapters complete the effort to make the work easily understandable to young audiences, though much is lost in terms of language and subtlety.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac