As a younger person in the nineties, I dipped into the plays of Shakespeare, and this book let me get into the classic stuff. It was interesting, put into kids' stories so as not to intimidate the younger enthusiast, and altogether, it was a good book. I suppose you have to be in to Shakespeare to enjoy it wholly though....

A gentle, relaxing dip into Shakespeare. I'll give two stars.

Tales from Shakespeare was one of the few books that attracted me by its title. I've heard a lot about William Shakespeare, however, I never really got to listen or read his stories. I think they're really special because everyone knows who he is and they say his stories are wonderful.
In this book, there are many, many stories, so I decided to read two of them I was interested in: ¡¥The Tempest¡¦ and ¡¥A Midsummer Night's Dream¡¦. But I'll only tell you about The Tempest.
The Tempest was the first story of the book. It was about a man and his daughter, Miranda, a young girl living on an island with spirits, and no other humans. However, before they decided to side there, there lived before them, a witch name Sycorax. She prisoned all the good spirits, including the leader, Ariel. When Miranda's father decided to side on the island, he defeated Sycorax, and Ariel, as the head of all good spirits promised to serve Miranda's father in any way he can.
As Miranda grew older, she became more beautiful. Her father thought that it was time for her to get married. He sent Ariel to carry Fernando, a prince to marry his daughter. At first, he was so angry at Miranda's father for doing such a thing, but once he saw Miranda, he decided to marry her. As they were getting married, Miranda's father had some revenge on his brother.
What I like about this book is that, Shakespeare has a lot of good ideas.
What I dislike about this book, is that, his stories are too confusing for me to understand. And every time I finish a story, I don't see the point of it.
But I really enjoy reading his stories though.

Although this book is written for children it is great for all ages and is great to get the basic story line before you go to a play. I read most of the plays in this book (I have not yet read all of them) when I was 11. Now that I have been reading the actual plays of Shakespeare I always start by reading the short version of the play in this book and than read the actual play. I can understand what is going on much better that way. I also recommend "Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children" by Edith Nesbit which gives about ten page versions of each story verses the thirty pages per story in this book and also has a smaller vocabulary which makes it better for younger children.