The Tempest for Kids

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

One can start by describing Lois Burdett as unusual, but this is an
understatement of mammoth proportions. Add that she is a gifted teacher
and talented writer, and we begin to approach the heart of the matter.

For two decades Burdett has asked her elementary-school students in
Stratford, Ontario, “Who is William Shakespeare?” She has touched
their imaginations, opening eyes to the excitement and beauty of the
plays by writing child-centred versions in rhyming couplets for class
productions. She encourages pupils to write their own comments and
illustrate her texts.

The Tempest, sixth in Burdett’s Shakespeare Can Be Fun series, is a
great fable for kids. Burdett’s text incorporates some of
Shakespeare’s language. The student comments confirm their
understanding of the play’s deep themes and their delight in them.
Their colorful drawings, paintings, and personal comments are set in
boxes below and beside her rhyming couplets. One child writes:
“Shakespeare is like a big piece of chocolate cake. Once you’ve
started, you wish you could go on and on forever, in a nonstopping
dream.”

The artistic director of the Stratford Festival writes in a foreword
that early influences are crucial in the formation of lifelong tastes
and aversions: “Thank heaven for Lois Burdett, for teaching her
students that great plays are playthings, and that making theatre is a
marvellous game.” She has helped them to find in Shakespeare “a
friend and playmate for life.”

With evidence of the children’s reactions on every page, one can only
agree. This book is a gift for children and adults alike. Highly
recommended.