ALA Booklist (Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 1996)

In this cheerful retelling of Shakespeare's great fantasy, Coville introduces the story and also conveys something of the poetry and drama. Nolan's framed graphite and watercolor paintings express the dreaminess and absurdity of the play, and the pictures have a theatrical flair, as if contemporary young people are in costume and acting the roles. The text is both grand and colloquial (The course of true love never did run smooth. Besides--I have a plan ). There is comedy and drama in the quarrel scenes (You painted maypole! ) and in Puck's merry mischief. A nice way to prepare children for a fresh performance of the play. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1996)

Horn Book

A graceful retelling reveals how Oberon, the Fairy King, and his servant Puck use a love charm to make Titania, the Fairy Queen, part with a mortal child and alter the romantic relationships of two young Athenian couples. Watercolors depict the dreamy world of the enchanted wood as both delicate and earthy and help to make the rich, humorous story accessible to a younger audience.

Kirkus Reviews

William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream ($16.99; PLB $16.89; Oct. 1996; 48 pp.; 0-8037-1784-6; PLB 0-8037-1785-7): Coville (Fortune's Journey, 1995, etc.) gracefully retells this famous comedy, retaining just enough of Shakespeare's language to lend a sense of the world of the play without overwhelming picture- book readers. Nolan conjures a magical world of Mediterranean-blue skies and gloomy enchanted forests, helpfully including endpaper portraits of the cast of characters. As an introduction to the real thing, this may be useful to older readers who want to have the plot and characters in mind before they enter Shakespeare's realm. (Picture book. 7+)"

School Library Journal

Gr 2 Up--Surely Nolan has created the most appealing Puck since Mickey Rooney. The wise hobgoblin piping on the cover and laughing on the title page is an irresistible lure into the story. Throughout, the artist's muted watercolors enrich the retelling. The cast of characters (except for Oberon's and Titania's elf-sized bands) look to be straight out of a high-school drama club production. Bottom is definitely the football captain who got roped into doing the play. The effect is delightfully fresh and youthful. The lush settings are perfect, from the blue Mediterranean and marble steps of Athens to the ancient magic of an enchanted forest full of huge gnarled trees with delicate sprites nestled among the vines and roots. Coville's aim, as in his version of William Shakepeare's The Tempest (Doubleday, 1994), is to tell the story in an uncomplicated manner and he does it quite smoothly, integrating Shakespeare's words into the simplified retelling, which is never so modern that the original rhythms are lost. The focus is on the two pairs of young lovers. The foolish antics of Bottom and the rustics, wonderfully slapstick and arguably the most readily accessible to young audiences of any of Shakespeare's clowning, are introduced but not elaborated upon. A Midsummer Night's Dream has been retold well in collections, but this individual treatment, verbally and visually true to the spirit of the play, will reach a new audience while delighting the old.--Sally Margolis, formerly at Deerfield Public Library, IL