WRB—Children’s Literature Supplement, Oct. 2025

“never let facts get in the way of a good story”

Sarah has been completely and utterly charmed by Beth Brower’s Emma M. Lion series the past month, and while it’s not a children’s series (though she heartily recommends it to every adult she meets), it has inspired thoughts of Shakespeare and a renewed devotion to beautiful phrases. This Shakespeare inspiration has spilled over into Sarah’s teaching, and a few weeks ago, her 4-6 grade class took a break from poetry to memorize some of the Bard’s work. Each student was randomly assigned 14 lines of a famous soliloquy and told that, if they memorized it in a week, they’d receive a candy bar. Chocolate is a strong motivator, and Sarah handed out a bar to each student in the class the following week. When she tried to get them back to poetry, however, the unexpected happened: They wanted more Shakespeare. Delightful, but also tricky, since 1) Sarah is a neophyte when it comes to both understanding and teaching Shakespeare and 2) Most Shakespeare plays aren’t suitable for children in 4-6 grade. How is she going to manage? For that, as well as a short tirade against abridged books and an ode to Ox-Cart Man, read on.

Beautiful routines

Patience Bradford

has the perfect October read over on her Substack, focusing on the 1980 Caldecott winner Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Bradford invites us into the story, giving us perspective on both the writing (the text is an adaptation of an earlier poem by Hall) and the art. This comment about time caught Sarah’s attention:

For young readers, Ox-Cart Man can serve as a gentle introduction to newer concepts that may be difficult to grasp: the passage of time, the relationship between seasons and human activity, the way communities depend on each other. Children see how the ox-cart man’s wool becomes someone else’s clothing, how his maple sugar sweetens another family’s food, how what he brings back helps to enable another year of production.

Shakespeare in the classroom

As Sarah mentioned before, she’s still very new to teaching Shakespeare, especially to younger students. To remedy this, she’s diving back into Shakespeare plays herself (her current favorite quote is from Julius Caesar:

Casius: Will you sup with me tonight, Casca?
Casca: No, I am promised forth.
Casius: Will you dine with me tomorrow?
Casca: Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth the eating.
Casius: Good; I will expect you.

She intends to start answering all dinner invitations in like manner.) She’s also reading outside commentaries such as Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare: The World as Stage (2007) and Norrie Epstein’s The Friendly Shakespeare (1993). But what has been absolutely instrumental is Ken Ludwig’s How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare (2013). This is an excellent introduction for children of almost any age (and their parents) to this pillar of Western literature, and it leads you thoughtfully through understanding and memorizing some of the Bard’s greatest lines. His method is simple, requiring repetition, time, and togetherness (and perhaps a printer), and Sarah is already walking around reciting “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows.” She was also thrilled to finally have a clear explanation of iambic pentameter, as well as a better understanding of how Shakespeare uses poetry in his plays.

Sarah is devouring her borrowed copy of this book as she saves for her own hardcover—which she intends to thoroughly annotate. If you have even the slightest interest in Shakespeare or desire for your children to memorize some of his lines, this is the perfect place to begin.

What the kids are reading