The Best of Shakespeare: Retellings of 10 Classic Plays (The Iona and Peter Opie Library of Children's Literature)

Yes, the name is familiar. E. Nesbit, who died in 1924, gave us The Railway Children and The Enchanted Castle. Now, with the publication of the Shakespeare stories she wrote (at their request) for her own children, adults and kids together can enjoy her fairy-tale prose in the retelling of 10 of Shakespeare's greatest stories.

If you aren't sure you remember which daughter Lear visited first, who was traveling with Macbeth when he met those witches, or just why Rosalind was wandering around in the forest dressed like a boy--check here. Wonderful on their own, these retellings are also great preparation for any early theater or film excursion into these timeless plays.

[The publishers recommend this book for ages 11 to adult, and they're right.]