ACCURACY:
William Shakespeare: His Life and Times. McDermott, Kristen and Berk, Ari. Templar Books: Candlewick Press. 2010

In this unique and creative illustrated book weaves a fictional narrative of Shakespeare’s life and times through a series of letters to his daughter, Judith. Each page contains numerous artistic, historical, cultural, and literary elements that are factual and scholarly, and the “narrative” aspects, as such, guide the reader and provide context. For example, a large, interactive, pop-out model of the Globe allows readers to physically explore, in a sense, the various parts of the theater, with our authors’ character of “William Shakespeare” as a tour guide. This character of Shakespeare is admittedly a fictional aspect of this book—many liberties are taken in these imagined missals to his daughter; however, in my opinion the strategy is both tasteful and effective. The narrative builds naturally from the material being presented and is cohesive from start to finish. Essentially, the conceit is that Shakespeare is writing home to tell his family that he is retiring and coming back to Stratford to be with them. He is “looking back” over his experiences since coming to London and becoming the world’s most famous storyteller. The imaginative account serves to give a sense of realness and immediacy to the real history that is detailed in this book.
The authors have essential amalgamated several key elements of Shakespeare’s era and his plays and presented them to readers in a personal and easily understandable fashion. Additionally, the lush, beautiful page layouts and images make this book particularly engaging and fun to read. The numerous pop-outs and inserts, rather than making this text seem “kiddish” or elementary, serve to bring us that much further into Shakespeare’s world, such as the various letters, maps, guides, illustrations, etc. I truly enjoyed reading this book, and I believe it would be a fabulous text to use with middle or high-school students who are first being introduced to Shakespeare. I would have students choose an aspect or topic from the book that interests them and have them research that topic for a paper or presentation. ( )

It's funny how many people come to Shakespeare thinking he's boring or dull or whatever, even before they've heard or read a word of what he wrote. This delightful introduction, presented both in and out of character, should go a long way to changing that. The Shakespeare in these pages is a real person, full of life, joys, and sorrows. On the eve of retirement, he writes a letter to his daughter Judith, waiting for him at home in Stratford, and describes the England he knows and especially the great city of London where he has spent most of his career. This book, for the most part, is that letter. (It begins in the very first envelope on the title page. Don't miss it!)

The voice is warm, friendly, and fatherly--the Elizabethan tone is suggested more than anything else. Pull-outs, fold-outs, and envelopes add interest with proverbs, advice, theatre hand-bills, and other bits and pieces you won't find at a Renaissance festival. The beautifully illustrated double-pages are a scrap-book of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean world that will give any reader a pleasant taste of what Shakespeare and his contemporaries, peasants and peers, thought and believed about the world, and how they lived in it, too. Love and family life, plays and the theatre, war and science, even what they ate, drank, and laughed at are all represented.

The brilliant Ari Berk never ceases to delight, and this time--writing in partnership with his wife, the equally talented Kristen McDermott--is no exception. Together, the authors have given us a rare life and times, a book that shows us Shakespeare not as the Great Bard but as a husband and father, working writer and actor, looking forward to coming home. It's a joy to read and page through, and will doubtless become a treasured book even after the reader has "out-grown" it. ( )