William Shakespeare and the Globe by Aliki, Aliki (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

From Hamlet to Romeo and Juliet to A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's celebrated works have touched people around the world.

Aliki combines literature, history, biography, archaeology, and architecture in this richly detailed and meticulously researched introduction to Shakespeare's world–his life in Elizabethan times, the theater world, and the Globe, for which he wrote his plays. Then she brings history full circle to the present–day reconstruction of the Globe theater.

Ages 8+

CCBC Choices

Aliki conveys biographical facts about the Bard through lively prose and meticulously executed drawings and paintings . . .A fresh, sometimes amusing, always intriguing look at William Shakespeare and Sam Wanamaker — two men of different centuries, each with rare genius.

CCBC Choices 2000

Aliki conveys biographical facts about the Bard through lively prose and meticulously executed drawings and paintings . . .A fresh, sometimes amusing, always intriguing look at William Shakespeare and Sam Wanamaker — two men of different centuries, each with rare genius.

Publishers Weekly

William Shakespeare may get top billing in the title of this picture book, but the emphasis within is less certain. Aliki (Mummies Made in Egypt) doesn't investigate Shakespeare as a personality; dividing her work into five "acts," she focuses more on Elizabethan culture, dramatic conventions and living conditions, then shifts to Sam Wanamaker and the process of renovating the Globe in the 20th century. Aliki employs serviceable, almost pedestrian statements to convey the history, stretching occasionally toward cleverness. Of the open-ceilinged Globe, she comments, "When it rained, [the audience] knew it." The material on Wanamaker's restoration sheds light on the process by which the new Globe was built ("The first and only thatched roof in London since 1666"), although the character of Sam, with whom readers are meant to identify, remains bland. Pages are loaded with small panel illustrations of characters and historic figures in exaggerated poses. They capture a jolly theatrical spirit (nearly everyone in the quaint colored-pencil pictures wears a gentle smile), yet the many crowd scenes do not repay scrutiny. Unlike Diane Stanley's work in Bard of Avon, these pictures give only a broad idea of the historical context. Quotations from the bard populate the margins, and numerous appendixes provide facts. The wide range of information here makes this book a useful introduction to Elizabethan theater, despite its disparate themes and generalized pictures. All ages. (May) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature

Aliki turns learning about Shakespeare into a great adventure-one that starts with his birth in 1564, and ends with the reconstruction of his beloved Globe theater in modern-day times. A beautifully illustrated account of the playwright's life and his influence in the literary world for centuries to come, William Shakespeare And the Globe will turn many a youngster into an avid literary connoisseur. Included are a map of Elizabethan London, a list of historical dates, chronology of Shakespeare's works, a section of colloquial expressions and a list of sites to visit for those who crave even more about Shakespeare.

Library Journal

Gr 3-6-This captivating biography introduces the real-life players and masterfully scripts historical events. Engaging illustrations and an impressive amount of information make this presentation a hit. (May) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-While this is one of the most appealing and responsible biographies of Shakespeare for this audience since Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema's Bard of Avon (Morrow, 1992), it is also a history of the Globe of the 17th century and of the recently completed facsimile of the theater built through the persistent efforts of Sam Wanamaker, an American actor. On the title page, readers see a picture of a boy sitting under a portrait of Shakespeare, constructing a model of the Globe. Sam's story is related in "Act Five" (the book is divided into acts and scenes rather than chapters). With deft economy of words, Aliki covers a broad range of Elizabethan theater history in addition to Shakespeare's life. She sets out the scenes in Stratford and London, and discusses the basics of playhouse building, Marlowe, Jonson, Elizabeth I, James I, principal actors, the plague, and something of the plays without losing focus. Her lively cartoon illustrations, which would pair quite happily with Marcia Williams's Tales from Shakespeare (Candlewick, 1998), blend with more finished framed portraits, maps, playhouse designs, and scenes from London life to expand and explain the spare text, both in picture and caption. Pertinent quotations from the plays are set as grace notes outside the main text. Addenda include a list of plays and poems, sites to visit, and an intriguing sampler of words and expressions found in Shakespeare. A thoroughly enjoyable and reliable introduction to the Bard.-Sally Margolis, Barton Public Library, VT Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Riverbank Review - Mary Moore Easter

William Shakespeare and the Globe is an interesting picture-book compilation of the facts of Shakespeare's life, loosely arranged in the structure of a play...This is a terrific book to spark a new interest or to satisfy an already established thirst. It can also serve as a tourist guide with its list of current-day sites to visit in London and Stratford-upon-Avon.

Kirkus Reviews

For Aliki (Marianthe's Story, 1998, etc.), the story of the Globe Theatre is a tale of two men: Shakespeare, who made it famous, and Sam Wanamaker, the driving force behind its modern rebuilding. Decorating margins with verbal and floral garlands, Aliki creates a cascade of landscapes, crowd scenes, diminutive portraits, and sequential views, all done with her trademark warmth and delicacy of line, allowing viewers to glimpse Elizabethan life and theater, historical sites that still stand, and the raising of the new Globe near the ashes of the old. She finishes with a play list, and a generous helping of Shakespearean coinages. Though the level of information doesn't reach that of Diane Stanley's Bard of Avon (1992), this makes a serviceable introduction to Shakespeare's times while creating a link between those times and the present; further tempt young readers for whom the play's the thing with Marcia Williams's Tales From Shakespeare (1998). (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)

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