This book is dedicated to Miss Walsh’s first period English class.

Preview audio:

storyj.mp/add75w6p8rfz

Once upon a time, there was a man named Bassanio.

Bassanio was in love with a beautiful lady named Portia, but he knew that she would not love him back unless he had money.

Bassanio went to ask his friend Antonio for money, but Antonio told him,

“I want to help you, but my money is far away on a boat in the ocean, and it will not be back for a little while. Maybe we can find someone else to help.”

Antonio and Bassanio found one person to lend them the money: Shylock the wizard.

Antonio and Bassanio did not like Shylock because he was a wizard, and Shylock did not like them either because they were humans!

Humans and wizards were rivals, and they were very mean to one another because of their differences.

When Bassanio asked Shylock to lend him some money, Shylock agreed!

“But,” he said, “You must promise that if you do not pay me back in three months with the money on Antonio’s ships, I will use my magic to make Antonio disappear!”

Shylock was secretly hoping that they would not be able to pay him back because he wanted to make Antonio disappear.

The two friends left happily because Bassanio got the money he needed.

They were not worried about Shylock the wizard’s threat.

With the money, Bassanio got on his ship and went to see his true love.

When Bassanio arrived in the land where Portia lived, she was very happy to see him, but she told him he must pass a test if he wanted to marry her.

Many other men had already come to see her, but none of them had passed.

Portia showed him 3 hats. She told him that only one had a picture of her underneath it, and if he picked the right one, he would be able to marry her.

Out of the 3 hats, two were very pretty and one was very ugly.

Bassanio knew that not everything that looks ugly on the outside actually is, so he picked the ugly hat.

He made the right choice!

Bassanio and Portia were so happy that they could get married!

As they were celebrating, a letter arrived with bad news: Antonio had lost all of his money...

Antonio knew that without his money, he wouldn’t be able to pay back Shylock the wizard and Shylock would make him disappear!

He went to ask Shylock if he would forgive him and not make him disappear, but Shylock said,

“No! Why would I forgive a human? You have always bullied me just because I’m a wizard, and now, I want you to disappear!”

Shylock was not allowed to make Antonio disappear right away. Before wizards were allowed to perform any important magic, they had to ask the human duke in court.

Many humans showed up, including Bassanio, because they were angry that the wizard was trying to make their friend disappear.

Shylock argued that Antonio did not keep his promise, so he should have been allowed to perform the disappearing. Antonio argued that it was a crime to just make someone disappear.

The duke decided that he could not stop Shylock from performing his magic because Antonio did not keep his promise.

Since he was allowed, Shylock raised his hands to cast a spell: “ABRACAD—”

“WAIT!” someone yelled.