| Author | |
DominaCaeli
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 24 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3711
|
| Posted: March 26 2012 at 2:11pm | IP Logged
|
 |
|
We'll be starting Shakespeare studies next year, and I was planning to decide on Nesbit or Lamb over the summer. But then I read this article from Crisis magazine (great article, by the way!), in which Marchette Chute's version is mentioned. Anyone use that version instead? Suggestions on any of these three?
Thanks!
__________________
Blessings,
Celeste
Joyous Lessons
Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
CrunchyMom
Forum Moderator
Joined: Sept 03 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6385
|
| Posted: March 26 2012 at 2:45pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I've been pondering getting that since reading the article as well. I'd be interested in anyone's experience with it. I don't think I've really seen it referenced anywhere else.
__________________
Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
DominaCaeli
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 24 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3711
|
| Posted: March 26 2012 at 2:46pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
CrunchyMom wrote:
| I don't think I've really seen it referenced anywhere else. |
|
|
I haven't either, which is why it intrigued me. I saw that they have it at our local library, so I put a copy on hold to take a look at.
__________________
Blessings,
Celeste
Joyous Lessons
Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mackfam
Board Moderator
Non Nobis
Joined: April 24 2006
Location: Alabama
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 14656
|
| Posted: March 26 2012 at 3:31pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I have it.  And I like it!
I've had Marchette Chute's novel, Shakespeare of London, for several years. It was a book my mom had my brother and sister read when they were homeschooling, and she passed it on to me. I'd say that the novel is probably high school appropriate, but her other book, Stories From Shakespeare, which is what you're both asking about (and mentioned in the article) is really a gem in itself.
It is written in modern English, in third person narrative, and the approach is much different than in Lamb's or Nesbitt's books, though I can't say that I think it that much better. I do like it - I really do! I'm not a Shakespeare expert at all, but I still find that I prefer Nesbitt's version in early elementary, Lamb's in later elementary, and I like Marchette Chute's for giving a really good top-down sense of the overall play. I find it especially good to read Chute before going to a Shakespeare play, or viewing an excellent BBC Shakespeare producation.
Marchette Chute writes about a play as if she's sitting there, at the play and describing the scenes to you. She takes for granted that you know this is a Shakespeare play that she's retelling you. In essence, it's really just an extraordinary written narration of Shakespeare's 36 plays! I'll give you an example from Marchette Chute's, The Taming of the Shrew:
Quote:
The Taming of the Shrew tells a story within a story, a device that Shakespeare tried only once and then discarded as of no use to him.
The first story, which is called the Induction, opens with a drunken tinker who is pushed out of an alehouse and falls asleep on the ground. A great lord who has been out hunting finds him there and decides to play a joke on him. He will house him in his castle and surround him with respectful servants, and when the tinker wakens he is hopelessly befuddled. Then he begins to develop a real enthusiasm for his new life, and the joke lies in contrast between the earth-like realism of the tinker and the elegance of his silken background.
A play has been arranged for his amusement, presented by a group of traveling actors, and as the play starts the second story begins. This is the tale of the taming of the shrew, the hot-tempered woman who is finally conquered by her husband, and it takes up the rest of the action. There is no real connection between the two stories, except for a kind of cheerful heartlessness in the tone of both.
The story of the shrew opens in the busy Italian city of Padua, a center of the arts. A rich young tourist named Lucentio arrives there with his servant to round out his education, and almost at once he finds himself a spectator to a vigorous family argument. ....... |
|
|
Charles and Mary Lamb's version interprets 20 of Shakespeare's plays (so does Nesbitt's), so isn't quite so comprehensive in scope. It does flesh out detail nicely in the plays, and is written in such a way that they are stories in and of themselves; truly interpretations written in an engaging literary way.
While Lamb and Nesbitt are retellings, or maybe it would be more appropriate to call them interpretations, of Shakespeare, they are not in the same style of Chute's Stories From Shakespeare, who writes more as a spectator than someone who is authoring a story.
All 3 books are excellent for introducing Shakespeare in my opinion. Here is how I use them:
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children by E. Nesbitt - read independently (very slowly) and narrated in 3rd & 4th grade.
Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb - offers more detail and depth to the stories, read independently and narrated in 5th and 6th grade.
Shakespeare's plays by William Shakespeare - my kids begin reading Shakespeare's plays around 7th grade, reading and narrating and we really enjoy good quality BBC productions of the plays.
Stories From Shakespeare by Marchette Chute - We read these brief retellings of the play before watching a play/production and find them helpful in bringing to mind the background and sometimes confusing details of the play before watching a production. I like reading this aloud for discussion.
Hope that helps.
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
DominaCaeli
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 24 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3711
|
| Posted: March 28 2012 at 11:43pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thanks very much for the reviews, Jen! I'm hoping Chute's will be ready for me to pick up at the library this weekend, and then I'll sit down and compare the three more closely. Your estimation of grade levels for each is particularly helpful, and thank you for describing the perspective of the writer/reader--I can see the differences now between the versions and how Chute's might be better for one who is about to read/view the play rather than as a substitution for the play itself. I'm also looking forward to looking into her other books--they sound like something I might want to read myself!  
__________________
Blessings,
Celeste
Joyous Lessons
Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mary K
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 14 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 945
|
| Posted: March 29 2012 at 7:49am | IP Logged
|
|
|
My younger children (nearly 9,6,3.5) and I have recenly enjoyed reading the Bruce Coville Shakespeare books.
They are done as stories with very nice illustrations.
God bless,
Mary-NY
wife to 1, mom to 9.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
|
|
4Real Forums : Living Literature
Topic: Children's Versions of Shakespeare
