“What’s so special about Shakespeare?” asks the author at the beginning of a graphically engaging account of the bard’s life. Rosen interprets some of what is known about the noted playwright’s life and times. Quotes from the plays and even summaries of some of them are interspersed within a lively narrative printed in varying type sizes. Ingpen’s distinctive pencil and watercolor artwork is everywhere, occasionally commanding an entire double-page spread. A detailed chronology and a bibliography are at the end of this melodramatic amalgamation of information and images designed to attract and keep the attention of young adolescents. (Ages 11–14)

Michael Rosen’s lively exploration of Shakespeare, reissued in an accessible new format for young middle-grade readers.

More than four hundred years after William Shakespeare’s death, his name is known in every corner of the world. Why? Celebrated poet, critic, and Shakespeare enthusiast Michael Rosen answers that question with humor, knowledge, and appreciation, offering a whirlwind tour of Shakespeare’s life, his London, and four of his plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, King Lear, and The Tempest.