Rating: 
Summary: To each his (her) own
Review: My goodness. If some parents find Julie Clark's voice to be inappropriate, annoying, or whatever, let them say so and stop belittling them! The same goes for questions about the all-female casting. Many believe it is a legitimate issue to raise, so why not let them say so without putting down their opinions? Perhaps parents who fail to perceive the importance of gender typecasting in infancy may find themselves dealing with sexually confused children years later. Perhaps not. One thing is certain -- out of twenty videotapes in our baby's library, this is the only tape that has no baby boys, or male presence of any kind. Say what you will, that sure seems odd to me. In any case, this tape's many pictures of toys in action work fine as an infant-distractor, like the others in the series. Your baby's rapt attention may mask all sorts of other thought processes going on inside, and it is for every parent to guess what is important for the child's media diet. So if you can ignore all the issues, including the presence of only one female writer, the near-total absence of Shakespeare's work, the gratuitous frog-shoving scene, and the scene depicting a flatulent cow -- then by all means, buy it. When we bought it there we no reviews to warn us, so here it is. We do play it, but not nearly as often as other tapes we own, because we don't think it's nearly as good or as instructive as the others. For the record, the soundtrack is quite nice, and perhaps worth getting without the videotape at all. Skip the book unless you have no other poetry books at home, and keep it out of baby's hands if you do buy it. It's not even hardcover. In short, Ms. Clark and her team have had better moments -- Baby Van Gogh being the best. For another comparison, the video "Goodnight Moon" is not fully successful but at least it has a real narrator in Susan Sarandon, and a story by a female writer.
Rating: 
Summary: My daughter loves all the Baby Einstein Videos!
Review: We have purchased all of the Baby Einstein videos and my daughter has enjoyed watching all of them since she was 2-1/2 months old. Baby Shakespeare is one of her favorites. She dances and laughs during the whole video. She even repeats the words. I do not find Julie Clark's voice annoying in the least. I think she does a great job with the poetry and my daughter seems to agree. I believe some people are reading way too much into a children's video, worrying about the lack of male voices or boys in the video. If you want to entertain your child and teach them at the same time, buy this video!
Rating:
Summary: My 10 month old triplet girls love it!
Review: This is a perfect "next step" for them having started on "Baby Motzart" and "Baby Einstein". My girls loved it from the start (we bought it for them on thier 10 month "birthday"). This entire series of video has been great, they like it even more than "TeleTubbies"!
Rating:
Summary: Billy Shakespeare rules for baby tots!
Review: i have a little baby who really digs this series. i couldn't beleive it but it was really great to see. So if there is any TV time for the wee one it is 15 minutes of this.
Rating: 
Summary: Great literature deserves better treatment
Review: We own all the Baby Einstein tapes and have found the others to be entertaining and stimulating to the senses, for baby and parents alike. But this tape moves into more complex territory, and the cookie-cutter formula of toys, puppets and inexpensive animation simply fails.This tape is for kids growing from the infant to the pre-toddler stage, and has a large verbal component, in the form of readings by the producer. Ms. Clark has performed spoken material in other tapes in this series, often in a natural, intelligible style. But for some reason she affects an inappropriate sort of breathy, baby-voice style to read all these varied literary and poetic excerpts. Consider that there were no female actors at all in Shakespeare's day, and you begin to appreciate how impossible it is for this approach to convey the authors' true intent. Most of the works were written by men, but there is not one male voice to be heard, and no male babies appear onscreen. I can think of no child development principle to explain such a production decision. By the time they are ready for this type of material, children will have heard many types of voices and should be comfortable with both genders. So the all-female casting seems odd and disconcerting. Vocabulary skills are taught much better by the "Baby Bee Smart" series. Or, for a variety of beautiful (male and female) readings of sensitively-written children's stories (also with great visuals and music), get "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." I'd recommend either of those -- along with any good (sturdy) book of poetry edited for children -- as a substitute for the Baby Shakespeare video and its flimsy companion volume.
Rating:
Summary: Five Stars for Girls. One Star for Boys.
Review: I'm a total feminist, in the most positive sense of the word. But my little girl (1 1/2) is so much more interested in this video than was my son (2 1/2) at the same age. She giggles, and laughs, and slaps her knees. Her rapt attention contrasts sharply with my son's ambivalence (and sometimes tantrums) when this video is on. My daughter, in fact, has little interest in any of the other typical videos (Barney, Blue's Clues, and other of the Baby Einstein videos). For her, I am overjoyed that this video was made. I hope there are more forthcoming, being a literature major myself. For girls -- awesome. For boys -- not so much.
Rating:
Summary: Baby Shakespeare
Review: This Video is excellent! My daughter loves it! I was suprised that at 13mos she sits/dances thru the whole thing glued to the TV. She dances to the music and is entertained by the toys and puppets. As she gets older I am sure that the poetry will entertain her as well. This video not only has enterainment value but has educational value as well. The combinations of words and objects are wonderful. I highly recommend this video to anyone with children.
Rating: 
Summary: Julie's voice is perfect for this!
Review: I don't know what the big deal is about Julie Clark's voice. I think it's perfect because she sounds childlike and the poetry should sound more like nursery rhymes, otherwise small children wouldn't be interested in what's being said. As far as her having a nasal sound, I don't agree, but for those of you that think that, here's some insight, some of the best recording artists have a nasal sound. I think people prefer something different than plain old generic and boring! I think Julie's voice is becoming trademark. Do we have some jealous people out there? My seven month old loves this video as she does Mozart. I can understand why this one is geared toward older toddlers, it's a little faster paced and she can't understand what's being said, but she still loves the toys and puppet. I have no doubt that in time, she will learn the words and what's being said.
Rating: 
Summary: Rude and inappropriate for children
Review: For the most part, the video was fine, but was appalled by the incredibly rude behavior portrayed by the puppets. One scene clearly displays a flatulent cow puppet, while "Bard", the main character is often rude and ill-behaved. (In one scene he giggles because he threw a frog off a lily pad.) Besides this, Julie Clark's voice IS annyoying, and makes the poetry sound more like nursery rhymes. I highly discourage any concerned parent from purchasing this particular edition of the Baby Einstein series.
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL PRODUCT- A MUST HAVE
Review: My 1 year old loves it, especially the funny antics of bard the dragon. My husband and I love it too- beautiful music and lovely scenery. This and Baby van Gogh are perfect for older babies! Puts all other baby videos to shame.
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