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 Antonia, 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