Shakespeare

PLAYING WITH THE BARD

	From Prospero Art, Shakespeare Quotes Playing Cards have a famous quote on each illustrated card.
	From Big Fish Games, in The Chronicles of Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, players take on the roles of Romeo or Juliet as Shakespeare is in the process of writing his famous play. Lots of puzzles and obstacles to be overcome (check out the Blog Walkthrough). Available for Mac or Windows.
	Enter the Story is an online project and teaching tool in which books are converted into interactive games. There are eight Shakespearean plays available as free online games: Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Winter’s Tale, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet (with more in the works). Fun, witty, and informative.
	Brainbox Shakespeare is a Shakespearean Q&A game based on a pack of beautifully illustrated cards, each with a quotation and a caption explaining the scene from the play. For ages 8 and up.
	Munchkin Shakespeare (Steve Jackson Games) is one of a parody series on fantasy role-playing games, involving a board, clever cards, and – as in all Munchkin games – opportunities to kill monsters and backstab your friends. Cards include “Curse! Winter of Your Discontent, “Mortal Coil,” and “Sonnet the Hedgehog.” The more Shakespeare you know, the funnier it is. For ages 10 and up.
	Shakespeare: The Bard Game is a board game in which players travel through Elizabeth London collecting collect actors, props, and patrons for performances of Shakespeare’s plays by answering trivia questions. For 2-5 players ages 12 and up. About $30.
	In The Play’s the Thing, players – as Shakespearean actors – move their pieces around a colorful board based on the Globe Theatre, attempting to collect all the cards necessary for staging a scene from Julius Caesar, Hamlet, or Romeo and Juliet. There are several levels of play for players with varying levels of Shakespearean expertise, including options for memorizing quotations and performing scenes. For 2-6 players ages 12 and up.
	In the board game Shakespeare (Asmodee), players as theater managers compete to put together the best possible Shakespeare play before the Queen arrives to view the new show. For ages 13 and up.
	Tom Tierney’s Great Characters from Shakespeare Paper Dolls (Dover Publications, 2000) has two dolls and 30 costumes, variously for Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Ophelia, Othello and Desdemona, and more. Included are short synopses of the plays. $6.95 from Dover Publications.
	The Shakespeare Coloring Book (Bellerophon Books) has quotes from the plays and black-line illustrations to color. For ages 9 and up.

SERIOUSLY QUIRKY SHAKESPEARE

	Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars (Quirk Books, 2013) translates George Lucas’s epic into the language of the Bard, complete with chorus and dialogue in iambic pentameter. (“The Death Star plans we could not find herein/Nor are they on the main computer, Lord.”) Hilarious for teenagers and adults.
	The Shakespearean Baseball Game (Wayne and Shuster) has background information and a printable short and hilarious script for a play about a baseball game (set on Bosworth Field). (“Umpire 1: I give you greeting, Antonio./Thou hast the starting lineups?”)
	Green Eggs and Hamlet is a hysterical short video version of Hamlet in which the “annoying iambic pentameter” of the original has been replaced with “a more accessible Dr.-Seuss-style rhyme.” Available on DVD.
	“Thy wit’s as thick as Tewksbury mustard!” Paste Shakespearean Insult Bandages on your skinned knees.
	For the Bard-lover who has everything, the Shakespeare Rubber Duck is the perfect literary bathtub toy, complete with mustache, manuscript, Elizabethan ruffles, and orange bill. $11.99.

POETIC SHAKESPEARE

	Miriam Weiner’s Shakespeare’s Seasons (Downtown Bookworks, 2012) pairs gorgeous artwork with quotes from Shakespeare’s plays and poems to illustrate the changing seasons. For ages 4 and up.
	Edited by Barbara Holdridge, Under the Greenwood Tree (Stemmer House Publishers, 1986) pairs paintings with Shakespearean poems and play excerpts. For ages 9 and up.
	Read Shakespeare’s poem “Under the Greenwood Tree” (from As You Like It) here.
	Edited by David Scott Kasten and Marina Kasten, Poetry for Young People: William Shakespeare (Sterling, 2008) – one of an excellent poetry series – pairs Shakespearean sonnets and soliloquies with impressive artwork. For ages 10 and up.
	Shakespeare’s Sonnets has all of them, with line-by-line notes, word definitions, and analyses.