Much Ado About Nothing for Kids

Mima Vulovic is a sessional lecturer at York University who also works
at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.

Much Ado About Nothing for Kids is the eighth book in the Shakespeare
Can Be Fun series, which also includes Hamlet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer
Night’s Dream. The book features Lois Burdett’s students’ vibrant
artwork and their equally delightful “in-character” commentaries. As
a special bonus, at the end of the book Burdett includes an industrious
set of activities in which Shakespeare’s legacy serves as a fodder for
further exploration of language, theatre, dance, history, geography, and
even culinary arts.

Much Ado About Nothing is about a lover who, through a succession of
intricate twists and complex confusions, is deceived into believing that
his beloved is unfaithful. While most adaptations of Shakespeare for
children offer only a synopsis of the play, Burdett runs a step ahead:
she rewrites the Bard in rhyming couplets. Aside from introducing young
readers to the sound of Shakespearean cadence, this device also makes
Much Ado suitable for “authentic” staging: young actors can actually
speak in verse. One only hopes they do, because this extravagantly
humorous story is as timely today as it was 400 years ago.

Shakespearean actor Denzel Washington writes the foreword to the book,
congratulating Burdett on her innovative approach. Burdett is the
recipient of Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal and the Encyclopedia
Britannica’s National Award for Early Childhood Education. Highly
recommended.