PICTURE BOOK - Will's Words by Jane Sutcliffe

How William Shakespeare Changed the Way You Talk
Illustrated by John Shelley

2016, Charlesbridge

HC $17.95

40 lovely, thick pages.

Goodreads rating: 4.36

My rating: 5, no question!

Endpapers:  Dark Rust

Setting:  1606 London

1^st line/s:  "Dear Reader:  We have to talk.  I have failed you.  I set out to write a book about the Globe Theater and its great storyteller, William Shakespeare.  About how the man was an absolute genius with words and wove those words into the most brilliant and moving plays ever written."

My comments:  This is more than a book that tells about how many of our everyday word choices and combinations were originally penned by W. S.  There are wonderful explanations included for each and the opportunity to read them in context, which is more-than-excellent.  It also tells of the times, of the theater, of how it all "worked."  You learn lots!  And the illustrations are a blast - there's so much to take in as you look and look at the details.  Great timeline and bibliography included as well.

Goodreads:  When Jane Sutcliffe sets out to write a book about William Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre, in her own words, she runs into a problem: Will's words keep popping up all over the place! What's an author to do? After all, Will is responsible for such familiar phrases as "what's done is done" and "too much of a good thing." He even helped turn "household words" into household words. 
           But, Jane embraces her dilemma, writing about Shakespeare, his plays, and his famous phrases with glee. After all, what better words are there to use to write about the greatest writer in the English language than his very own?  As readers will discover, "the long and the short of it" is this: Will changed the English language forever.