My oldest daughter has gone a bit Shakespeare insane lately, and I’m ok with it.
1) She’s currently writing a time-travelling young adult novel that features the characters from Midsummer Night’s Dream coming to life (out of the imagination of Mr. William Shakespeare) and growing up as regular everyday high school kids with no knowledge of their “true” selves until they’re called upon to save Shakespeare’s daughter Susannah.
2) She brought home a *shudder* Modern English translation of Midsummer from school. I held it up with two fingers like a bit of rotten banana peel and demanded to know who’d brought such a thing into my house. She told me that she had so many questions she didn’t want to keep pestering me. I said, “Yeah but I have like 5 versions of this play over on the bookshelf you could have used one of those.”
3) She has taken to quizzing both her fellow students and teachers alike on Shakespeare. What is she asking them? “What’s the name of the witch in The Tempest?” and “What’s Lady Macbeth’s real name?” I suggested that maybe she should let them crawl before she asks them to sprint. We toned it down to “What’s the name of the girl Romeo likes before he meets Juliet?” and “Is Mercutio a Montague or a Capulet?” and yes that second one is a trick question.
4) She found out that in 8th grade they read Romeo and Juliet. She’s in 6th grade now. She’s already anticipating just how well she’s going to do in that class!
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