As I continue my quest to read all books illustrated by Gennady Spirin, as always, I am totally amazed at the team of Beneduce and Spirin. The Tempest was William Shakespeare's final work. It is a stellar work.

Miranda and her father Prospero are exiled on a faraway island. They are alone except for Caliban and other magical spirits. Once a prosperous Duke of Milan, his jealous brother Antonio stole his dukedom and banished him to the island. Now 15 years old, Miranda is a beautiful young woman. When a strong storm (a tempest) occurs, the violent waves overthrow Prospero's enemy, his brother Antonio, and young, handsome Ferdinand,

As the waves crash against the rocks, the ship splits and, tempest tossed, lands on the island where Prospero and Miranda are. Immediately, Ferdinand and Miranda are drawn to each other and loves ensues.

Shakespeare's plays are usually very complicated with many themes. In this drama, there is treachery, magic, love and forgiveness.

Spirin's watercolors rend this tale one of beauty and longing.

Personally, I am drawn to this tale because my favorite Pre Raphaelite artist, J.W. Waterhouse, painted an incredible image of Miranda as she looks out to see as the ship nears the island as the waves beat the ship. ( )

For a kids book, this is a good introduction to Shakespeare. The language is made modern so it is easier to understand and reads like a fairy tale. The author keeps some of the original Shakespearean language as little songs and speeches and the artwork makes it look even more amazing. This isn't the best Shakespeare play because of how strange it is originally, but it works perfectly for a picture book to introduce Shakespeare to kids. I appreciate Beneduce downplaying a lot of the violence. ( )

An issue that I had with an earlier book in the series comes to fruition in this book. While I don't have an issue with Modern English being used in Early Modern plays, at least for younger audiences, something is definitely lost when a Shakespeare play is abridged as severely as this one had been. While not the main part of the story, excising Caliban to mere sentences is an injustice to the work itself. it leads to a cursory and misleading interpretation of Caliban as a character. Indeed, the opening sentences demonstrates this concern when he is stated to be "evil" with very little further explanation.
While I would never say that I enjoy Caliban as a character, I nevertheless feel that the character would be better served with a tad more back story. For instance, no where is it mentioned that the Island belonged to him by virtue of he and his late mother inhabiting the island years before Prospero's arrival. Furthermore, this telling of the play conveniently leaves out that he had been enslaved by Prospero. While it is true that Prospero dealt with him kindly in the beginning, this was the kindness that a colonizer might dole out to a newly subaltern native population. While young students don't need to have their innocence shattered through learning about European colonialism just yet (and most current readings of "The Tempest" have it as a commentary on England's early forays into colonization), Caliban cannot be presented so one dimensionally if this is to be considered a good book. ( )

This was actually my first introduction to The Tempest, and now I am intrigued to read the play! As much as I love Romeo and Juliet, Miranda and Ferdinand's relationship (though still brief) seems to be based on stronger conversation and shared interests - a better role model relationship for teenagers! This book actually includes short excerpts from the play which is a nice touch. I think young readers could recognize those texts while encountering the full play. ( )

I'm rather conflicted by this book. I understand that it is intended for children, and the author writes at the end of the book that, "The book is intended to offer young readers a very brief, but inviting glimpse of the stage itself," (31). However, this version is a far cry from Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Prospero's motives and the swift resolution of the conflict is different from the play. Of course, this is intended for children so the author felt obligated to scale back the depth of the play. So I'm conflicted because I'm not quite sure whether the book scaled back too much.

Aside from that, I enjoyed the artwork. The illustrator does a great job by capturing the major moments in the play. And for the very crucial parts, the illustrator dedicates two pages of artwork to emphasize the moment. For example, pages 18 and 19 are illustrations dedicated to Miranda and Ferdinand's marriage. The inclusion of gods and the surreal are emphasized by the double page illustration showing the lavishness of the wedding. I felt that this was a clever way to have students think deeply about why these moments warrant emphasis.

Overall, I wouldn't mind using this book as an introductory text to Shakespeare.