I've been reading Shakespeare since I was eight or nine, I was surrounded by his work and others as my parents were readers and my Father, an English teacher. I have loved his work, begged to go to the Globe and visit his home etcetera and love his plays and Sonnets...

I say this to explain why I simply had to read a book designed to introduce children to a man whose very works made our language today. I was drawn to the cover first, finding the artwork exquisite and my curiosity spiked.

Then I began to read the stories.

Whilst I understand that this is an adaptation of his work and they have been simplified to make them easier for the age of the reader, I was left wondering where important characters where. For example, you cannot have Hamlet without Ophelia. I also felt my heart sink at the adaptation of some of his most famous scenes that left me bereft for the actual quotes or at least for it to resemble more closely to Shakespeare's original work - the Rose scene in Romeo and Juliet stood out to me.

I truly wanted to love this, and to say to people go get it and open the door for your children to Shakespeare, you won't be disappointed.

But you will with this sadly, there are far better adaptations out there that will give you the foundation blocks of Shakespeare's plays.