New Book Raps Summary of Shakespeare Literature

When Mr. Z was a kid, he read CliffNotes whenever he had a hard time with Shakespeare. When he became a teacher himself, he had his fifth-grade students write rap lyrics to study South America. Results- their grades went through the roof. Now, he's taken his idea to English literature: It's CliffNotes marries rap with Shakespeare.

It makes sense. Even before Homer, writers have known that if they rhymed their lines, listeners would be able to memorize it much more easily. And in Rap-Notes: Shakespeare's Greatest Hits Volume 1, Mr.Z writes rap-summaries of five of some of the Bard's greatest hits: namely Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. These summaries all rhyme, and they're meant to be read with a funky beat.

Readers can check out this portion of Romeo & Juliet:
"Two households, in the one percent and above / In Verona they fought and fought and never loved / They'd been feuding for ages, for what, none remembers / But their grudge smoked two lovers into burning embers. / A plague on both your houses, a pox on all the men / Who'd rather be right and fight and fight / Than shake hands and shout "Never again!" / A plague on both your houses, Capulet and Montague / Two lovers paid the highest price / Because of the two of you. / Who am I? you ask, I'm the comic relief / I'm the nurse, no one's worse at being relatively brief. / I'll never say one word when three will do / I'm the nurse, and I curse, so watch out for that too...."

For more information on this book, interested parties may log on to http://www.Xlibris.com.

About the Author
Mr. Z is the nom de plume of Bob Zaslow. He was an advertising copywriter at Grey Advertising in New York for fifteen years, where he worked on everything from Prestone Antifreeze to Sprint Business to Maalox. His most recent play was performed Off-Broadway at the Bleecker Street Theatre, The Seed of Abraham, a musical. His plays for children are distributed by CES, Creative Educational Services. And his documentary film, Nadine Valenti, Portrait of a Painter, has been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was a Bronze winner at the American Film Festival. He's also written many one-act comedies, four of which have been finalists at the Aery 20/20 Festival in Putnam County as well as one play at the Strawberry Festival in NYC. Mr. Z lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York.

RAP-NOTES * by Mr. Z
Shakespeare's Greatest Hits Volume 1
Publication Date: November 7, 2012
Trade Paperback; $12.99; 74 pages; 978-1-4797-1234-2
Trade Hardback; $15.99; 74 pages; 978-1-4797-1235-9
eBook; $3.99; 978-1-4797-1236-6

Members of the media who wish to review this book may request a complimentary paperback copy by contacting the publisher at (888) 795-4274 x. 7879. To purchase copies of the book for resale, please fax Xlibris at (812) 355-4079 or call (888) 795-4274 x. 7879.

For more information on self-publishing or marketing with Xlibris, visit http://www.Xlibris.com. To receive a free publishing guide, please call (888) 795-4274.

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