The Tempest

There are a lot of things that I love about the Tempest (the magic, the island setting, the revenge of a wronged ruler, finding unexpected love), yet this retelling of the story left me very much wanting. The illustrations were artfully done (the colour tones, characterizations, and setting choices were all well made), but what made this book a failure for me is that the writer didn’t seem to take very much care with the story aspects. Attempting to adapt Shakespeare’s plays for a child audience and in a much-shortened storybook format is an almost impossible feat, since there is so much character development, clever language, and subtle plot designs that are integral to the success of the play as a whole. The author did not manage show more to include any of these aspects in her treatment due to her over-simplification of the language and story, which led to a tale without any of Shakespeare’s depth and an overall underwhelmed feeling of disappointment from this reader. show less