title: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
author: Michael Rosen
description: Grade 5-9--This version of the eternally popular tale of star-crossed lovers uses clear, paraphrased prose and poetic lines quoted from Shakespeare's original to enable readers to comprehend the intricacies of the story's interwoven plots. The book begins with a short introduction to Elizabethan society and an illustrated explanation of the cast of characters. Dividing the text into acts and scenes, Rosen summarizes much of the action in language that maintains the integrity of the play. Shakespearean passages are highlighted in bold print and unfamiliar words are explained in sidebar definitions. The adapter's prologue and endnote place the narrative in the context of a theatrical performance. The prose is readable and will lend itself to young thespians wanting to dramatize either individual scenes or an abridged version of the whole epic. Ray's fine watercolor artwork, though stylized, realistically portrays the characters and climactic moments. The artist also uses some rather surrealistic images to suggest the content of Romeo's dreams. The eyes of her characters are particularly haunting in their intensity. Most of the illustrations are full page, but numerous smaller paintings further elucidate the text or break up longer passages. Subdued wallpaperlike borders repeating a design of ferns and feathers appear throughout. Taking a more scriptlike approach than Bruce Coville's William Shakespeare's Romeo andJuliet(Dial, 1999), this version will serve as a fine introduction, particularly in literature and drama classes, to perhaps the most romantic of Shakespeare's tragedies.--Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  # Romeo’s Rules
  
  
  ### A Mike Romeo Thriller
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## James Scott Bell
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Contents
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [ROMEO’S
  RULES](part0002_split_000.html#1T140-ebafb856954845ed86b10c52096ea903)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Author’s Note](part0003.html#2RHM0-ebafb856954845ed86b10c52096ea903)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # ROMEO’S RULES
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _T here’s only one thing I need to know: Whose side are you on?_
  
  
  \- Paul Simon, “Paranoid Blues”
  
  
  
  
  
  _W herefore art thou Romeo?_
  
  
  \- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
  
  
  Act II, Scene 2
  
  
  
  
  
  I WAS TALKING to a woman about flowers when John the Baptist blew up.
  
  
  The woman was around sixty, wearing a sunhat, clipping away at a rhododendron
  hedge near the sidewalk.
  
  
  “Those are beautiful,” I said, because they were—hearty pink, with rounded
  trusses. They were full and open to the sun, and offset the green shrubbery
  like chorus girls practicing leg kicks in a forest.
  
  
  “Thank you,” the woman said. She ha