• William Shakespeare is considered the most important writer in all of English literature.

• His plays and sonnets are considered essential reading for students around the world, in order to introduce them to the depth and beauty of his language and ideas.

• Several children’s authors have written both fiction and non-fiction titles, in order to introduce Shakespeare’s works and life to younger audiences.

• Author Tina Packer has written Tales From Shakespeare, containing several shortened versions of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, illustrated by various artists to bring the stories to life.

• Similarly, author Bruce Coville has adapted several Shakespeare stories into individual books that capture the essence of the plots and some of the language, in easy-to-read picture books.

• Marcia Williams has also written her own Tales From Shakespeare that contains seven of Shakespeare’s plays in short, illustrated versions for children.

• Author Aliki has written an illustrated non-fiction biography called William Shakespeare & The Globe to introduce readers to the life and world in which Shakespeare lived and worked.

• Additionally, Diane Stanley has written a brief illustrated biography entitled: The Bard Of Avon.

• There have also been several authors who have written fictionalized accounts of Shakespeare’s life.

• Author Gary Blackwood wrote a trilogy called The Shakespeare Stealer about a young boy who is taken from his home and brought to London in order to make illegal copies of Shakespeare’s highly popular plays to sell on the black market!

• Eventually, he meets Shakespeare, and works for him as his scribe, while secretly plotting to steal his work and give it to his criminal masters!

• Author Susan Cooper, who wrote the popular fantasy series The Dark Is Rising, also wrote a book about Shakespeare called: The King of Shadows.

• In it, a young actor is magically transported back 400 years to Shakespeare’s time, where he finds himself playing the role of Puck in the original production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and performing before Queen Elizabeth!

• Unknown to him, he has switched places with another young boy, who has taken the black plague back to our day!

0 Anthony Horowitz wrote The Devil and His Boy in 1998. The book is set in Tudor times during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and follows the adventures of young Tom Falconer he escapes from an abusive home and tries to elude an relentless assassin, all while meeting several prominent figures of the time.

0 A reviewer wrote that the book was "rollicking, often fanciful fun ...despite the inclusion of some rather gory details".

0 Author Elise Broach wrote Shakespeare’s Secret about a sixth-grade girl named Hero (after a Shakespearean character) who discovers that her old house may hide a million-dollar diamond and a secret about Shakespeare!

0 And author Deron R. Hicks wrote Secrets of Shakespeare’s Grave and its sequel: Tower of the Five Orders about a young girl who’s on a globe-hopping adventure to find an old family treasure with ties to the Bard of Avon.

• The final two stories take wildly different approaches to stories about William Shakespeare.

• The first, Wicked Will, by author Bailey MacDonald, takes place in 1576, where a young actress, who is disguised as a boy, uncovers a murder mystery with help from a local lad named Will Shakespeare.

• The second, Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney, takes place in the world of Macbeth, where a young girl is imprisoned by the wicked Lord and Lady Macbeth.