My daughter loves literature. But I always like adding new perspectives when we discuss them. So, this is where the Romeo and Juliet Memoria Press Literature series, from Memoria Press became a part of our learning experience. Memoria Press has quite a selection in their literature series, Romeo and Juliet is just one of many.

This high school literature course can be used anytime between 9^thand 12^thgrade. There is a student study guide and a teacher guide. There is also a recommended copy of Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare that can be purchased separately. I would recommend purchasing the exact one recommended as this makes it easy for the student to follow along.

This course was written for Memoria Press by their Director and Writer of the upper-school literature curriculum. I was impressed with his teaching experience and his credentials and feel confident in his ability to produce a challenging high school program.

The teacher guide starts with a “how to use” section. It explains how to prepare for the course. It recommends reading all the student notes, introductory essays, and “how to mark a book.” There are also relevant comprehension questions that cover the introductory material to ensure that the student understands what is expected of them. I love that this information really helps set the stage for learning and gets the student and teacher in the same mindset and helps set the expectations of the course. The rest of the teacher guide is a duplicate of the student book except it has the answers to all the questions.

The student study guide is a good quality paperback book. There is a nice picture of the main characters on the front. A lot of the same introduction material is contained in the student book. This study guide is not actually split up into daily lessons. The student can complete the sections as their own schedule permits. Sometimes when my daughter has a quiet day, she might complete quite a few pages and sometimes only one or two. It’s set out in a very flexible way.

After the introductory section in the student study guide, there are some excellent sections which give the student a background to the play. They cover Basic Features & Background, Major Characters, and Literary & Rhetorical Devices. The rest of the student guide is broken down by Acts. There are areas of preparation which include reading notes and grammar. I really liked that the vocabulary is split into scenes so it’s easy to find. There is also a section for the student to define words. These are given to them in complete sentences and quoted straight from the text of the play.

I appreciated the format of these books. They were very easy to follow for both the student and teacher. It made what some consider a difficult topic easier to understand. We plan on finishing this book and hope to go on to complete many of the other choices in the series.

-Product Review by Lisa Maynard, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, June 2017