lazygal's review
4.0
One of the more popular titles in our MS is YOLO, Juliet, while in our US students are liking Romeo and/or Juliet so any fun introduction to Shakespeare is a welcome addition to our shelves. And that this is starting a series? Yes, please. This is skewed towards younger readers who may not have ever studied the plays, giving them just enough of the plot and the characters to enlighten without confusing them or making them afraid of Close Reading in the future.
ARC provided by publisher.
ARC provided by publisher.
sonshinelibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
This reminded me of the premise of Scieszka's Time Warp Trio series, except here the kids get sucked into a work of literature (Hamlet, obviously). It's a fun read with some cute illustrations. I really liked the full spread pages from Kyle and Becca's comic book. The key word in the title is "Fakespeare" as the plot they fall into isn't exactly the plot you might remember. Hamlet and Ophelia are younger, Claudius is a despot, and well, spoiler they unveil Claudius' intention to take the throne and Hamlet is crowned king. But I certainly wasn't expecting the ending to be the same as the play because a middle grade book ending with everyone's deaths would be ... unusual. I might pick up the companion book about Becca's journey into Romeo and Juliet.
reader_fictions's review against another edition
3.0
When visiting Lenore (author of Level 2), her copies of both Fakespeare books had just arrived, and I read Something Stinks in Hamlet on a whim. Though unsurprisingly a bit juvenile for me, Something Stinks in Hamlet was a surprisingly clever reimagining of Hamlet for young readers.
Expect a lot of poop humor when you set out on the Fakespeare journey. That’s very much not my thing, but obviously will be popular with the intended audience. What I enjoyed here were the cute modifications made to Hamlet, which isn’t the most kid-friendly story, what with all the death. The change of something rotten in the state of Denmark to Elsinore literally being stinky was pretty hilarious and perfect for the age group. The fact that Claudius was actually framing Hamlet to seem mad was clever as well.
Fun and quick, I suspect these could be great for young readers. I probably won’t read the second one, unless I fall behind on my book challenge again and it’s handy. 😉
Expect a lot of poop humor when you set out on the Fakespeare journey. That’s very much not my thing, but obviously will be popular with the intended audience. What I enjoyed here were the cute modifications made to Hamlet, which isn’t the most kid-friendly story, what with all the death. The change of something rotten in the state of Denmark to Elsinore literally being stinky was pretty hilarious and perfect for the age group. The fact that Claudius was actually framing Hamlet to seem mad was clever as well.
Fun and quick, I suspect these could be great for young readers. I probably won’t read the second one, unless I fall behind on my book challenge again and it’s handy. 😉
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