Monday, 7 September 2015

Where's Will? by Anna Claybourne and Tilly (Ivy Kids)

Forget Wally, have fun finding the illustrious Bard hidden amongst scenes from his most popular plays. An awesome historical and fun book, here's "Where's Will?"
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Well, at the moment it's a bit overcast and windy so we'll skip that well worn phrase and dip into a truly excellent book that is tons of fun AND educational.

Long-time Read-it-Daddy-ers will know that old curmudgeonly daddy is picky when it comes to Shakespeare (If it's not "The Tempest" or "King Lear" I'm not interested! Pfooey!) but Madame Charlotte is far more accepting of the bard, and is developing a real love for his works thanks to some truly awesome recent non-fiction titles we've been lucky enough to take a look at.

Here's a different approach altogether and it's a stroke of genius. Marry the observational fun of the "Where's Wally?" books with a goodly dose of Shakespeare's plays, to produce a stunning and glorious activity book that will keep your younglings occupied for hours.

First, you get a smashing introduction to some of the plays...

Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" in comic strip form!
...and then you get to find all those characters hidden in a big detailed double-page spread!

Where oh wherefore art thou, William!
William Shakespeare also turns up in every scene so you'll have tons of fun picking out the characters and their creator - or just enjoying the complete chaos and exquisite detail in Tilly's glorious illustrations.

It's a fantastic idea and once again I found myself wishing that we'd had books like this when I was a wee ragged-trousered whippersnapper.

Truly gorgeous page spreads like this help Shakespeare's work come to life!
"Where's Will?" is out now from Ivy Kids (Ivy Press).

Charlotte's favourite bit: Finding Will in each scene, and reading the fantastic plot summaries in comic strip form.

Daddy's favourite bit: What a genius idea! A brilliant way to introduce children to the works of Shakespeare without putting them off for life. Superb book, really enjoyed it!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Ivy Press)

"Where's Will?"

Written by Anna Claybourne

Illustrated by Tilly

Published by Ivy Kids (Ivy Press)

Release Date: 1st September 2015