Bibliographical information:

Donkin, Andrew.  William Shakespeare and His Dramatic Acts.   Illus. Clive Goddard.  New York: Scholastic, 2004.  Part of the "Dead Famous" series.

Brief summary: 

A  fun, extremely accurate biography of Shakespeare that includes Elizabethan-Jacobean history; conditions of life and theater-going in the Shakespearean age; and discussion of most of the plays.

Comments:

My son is seven, so we alternate reading pages.  We laugh out loud when we read this book, but it also provokes discussion of all kinds.  The "Dead Famous" series is uniformly strong.

Grade/Age level:

Ages 9-12

Cautions:

--Peter G. Platt