This series continues to translate classic literature into graphic-novel format using excerpts from the originals, unimaginative panel illustrations, stilted and sometimes extraneous summary text ("Mr. Enfield begins his tale"), and explanatory footnotes. Characters are often difficult to identify; text, summary, and illustrations are occasionally mismatched. The whole conveys nothing of what makes these stories classic. Mildly interesting back matter is included. Timeline. Ind.

Gr 7-9--This effort fails miserably as an introduction to the play or as a review tool for high school students. Plenty of well-written treatments exist at a variety of lengths and language levels that present the story with some of the verve it deserves. Given the choice here of short words and sentences and choppy, one-to-three sentence paragraphs, this British import may well have been intended for reluctant readers. If so, any advantage of the extreme simplicity of language is overbalanced by the truly dreadful illustrations. Anyone struggling with Shakespeare would be further turned off by these blurry, careless, unpleasant black-and-white drawings that face every page of text. Random and often inaccurate definitions at the bottoms of a few text pages and equally random-seeming quotations under the illustrations complete this unappealing package.--Sally Margolis, Barton Public Library, VT