Collins Big Cat - The Merchant of Venice: Band 16/Sapphire

Get acquainted with Shakespeare’s classic tale of greed and revenge, in this light-hearted and amusing retelling. Bassanio is overjoyed when he finally gets to marry Portia. But, his happiness is short-lived when he is forced to defend his dear friend Antonio, who’s in trouble with an old merchant – intent on getting his pound of flesh.

Sapphire/Band 16 books offer longer reads to develop children's sustained engagement with texts and are more complex syntactically.

Text type: Fiction from our literary heritage

Curriculum links: English: fiction from the English literary heritage

This book has been quizzed for Accelerated Reader.

Collins Big Cat supports every primary child on their reading journey from phonics to fluency. Top authors and illustrators have created fiction and non-fiction books that children love to read. Book banded for guided and independent reading, there are reading notes in the back, comprehensive teaching and assessment support and ebooks available.

Collins Big Cat is a whole-school reading programme that provides complete support for primary reading. Children will become fluent readers through hundreds of high-quality fiction and non-fiction banded books by award-winning authors and illustrators. In-depth teaching resources support you in developing and assessing key reading skills at all stages from early reading through to phonics, to guided, whole-class and independent reading for more confident readers.