The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Macbeth

by Ian Lendler, Zack Giallongo (Illustrator)

Overview

The Stratford Zoo looks like a normal zoo... until the gates shut at night. That's when the animals come out of their cages to stage elaborate performances of Shakespeare's greatest works. They might not be the most accomplished thespians, but they've got what counts: heart. Also fangs, feathers, scales, and tails, in The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Macbeth.
Ian Lendler's hilarious tale of after-hours animal stagecraft is perfectly paired with the adorable, accessible artwork of Zack Giallongo (Broxo, Ewoks). And with Romeo and Juliet coming in book two, this is a promising new series of graphic novels for young readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466881020
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	09/30/2014
Series:	Stratford Zoo
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
File size:	33 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

When Ian Lendler was younger, he really enjoyed acting in the theater. He was, however, extremely terrible at it. So he became a writer of children's books (An Undone Fairy Tale and Saturday) and non-fiction. But in order to support his family, he took a day job de-worming animals at the Stratford-on-Avon Zoo. He immediately recognized the talents of the troupe and began working with them on diction, dialect, and not eating the audience. When not working with his talented cast and crew, Ian sells lemonade on the sidewalk and plays the ukulele in San Rafael, CA.
Zack Giallongo is a professional cartoonist, cheese enthusiast, and amateur banjo-ist. Raised in the Northeast, he has a deep and instinctual love of apples, Fall, ancient gravestones, and old, crooked buildings. Although he loves all creatures great and small, his stint as an Illustration major at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth sent him down the path of comic craftsmanship rather than being a ranger or a zookeeper. His first solo graphic novel, Broxo is about teenage barbarians and was published in 2012. It hit #4 on the NYT Bestsellers list.

Zack Giallongo is a professional cartoonist, cheese enthusiast, and amateur banjo-ist. His first solo graphic novel, Broxo, is about teenage barbarians and was published in 2012. It hit #4 on the New York Times Bestsellers list.
Ian Lendler is the author of the acclaimed Stratford Zoo graphic novel series and the picture books, Undone Fairy Tale, Saturday, and One Day A Dot. He is at one with the universe, but only when eating pizza. He lives near San Francisco, CA.

Editorial Reviews

. . . a wonderfully accessible, engaging, and kid-friendly adaptation of the Shakespeare classic.” —Booklist

“. . . a comic affair that will appeal to younger readers.” —School Library Journal

“*As the zookeeper locks the gates to the Stratford Zoo, the animals are just beginning to set up for their evening performance of Macbeth . . . Those too young to appreciate the original play will certainly grasp this cleverly anthropomorphized, lushly envisioned graphic romp.” —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

From the Publisher

2014-07-29
Ever wonder what zoo animals do at night? Why, they perform Shakespeare, of course! As the zookeeper locks the gate to the Stratford Zoo, the animals are just beginning to set up for their evening performance of Macbeth. The characters are all present and accounted for: a hungry, ketchup-loving lion Macbeth, who discovers an insatiable new taste for power; a trusting and bumbling owl Duncan; a leopard Lady Macbeth, who realizes in a fury that she has indelible spots; and a stork—who was delivered by another of his own kind, not born to a mother—as MacDuff. This innovative and intelligent reimagining hits all the notes of the Bard's famous play yet manages to put enough of a spin on it to keep it fresh and novel. (Though it makes a few age-appropriate changes, like changing a key word in Lady Macbeth's famous monologue to "dumb.") Those too young to appreciate the original play will certainly grasp this cleverly anthropomorphized, lushly envisioned graphic romp, not realizing how effectively they are being set up for the original later on. As the menagerie's nighttime performance ends and another day begins, the rest of the animals await the next play: Romeo and Juliet; let's hope that readers will be privy to that performance as well. Encore, please! (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews