Without a doubt!  This story, in my honest opinion, is a story that cries out to be read, not only because it was written by the Bard himself, but because the story itself is a neverending classic.  I read it for the first time in high school, and fell in love with it.  To this day it remains my favorite Shakespearean tragedy; when I began to teach I taught it for the first time in the springtime.  Now I strive to teach it ialways in the spring; there is just something about Shakespeare in the springtime!  By all means tell others about it.  Judging by your grade, I think that maybe you, yourself, found it to be as wonderful a story as most people do.  My daughter was a ninth grader this year, and she also fell in love with Shakespeare. Go ahead and spread the word.

You do realize that you're asking this question of a bunch of English teachers...the real question is would you? The answer to that has to come from within. I think everyone who teaches Shakespeare hopes that our students will say "yes" to this question, but whether you will or not depends on whether you've made a connection with the play. I can tell you it's juicy--there's forced marriage, lust, sex, love at first sight, hatred, blood and forces that seem conspired against you (who hasn't experienced this?). I can tell you that Juliet was the same age as you and that her mother had already married a man 30 years older than her (yuck) and had had a baby by the time she was your age (more yuck). I can tell you that Juliet's mother seems inordinately enamoured with the man Juliet is being forced to marry (again, yuck!)

I can tell you that there's more sexual innuendo in the play than most restricted movies, and I can tell you that the content is something that every teenage girl (and boy) ought to think about, but in the end, it's all about you.

Have you ever thought you were in love? Did it last? Would you die for that person? Are you even still friends?

Yes, I'd read it. It's not an easy read and I'd make sure I had either the Arden or the Cambridge version (because they tell you what they're actually joking about), but I'd DEFINITELY read it and I often tell others to do so.

Absolutely! The play of Romeo and Juliet is timeless--what could be better than two young people from families who are bitter enemies, who fall in love at first sight, who marry the day after they meet, and then die because they can't imagine life without the other one? It appeals to the romantic part in all of us. It's such a great play that from the beginning, we know that Romeo and Juliet are going to die at the end, but we still read it because the story of what happens in the short time that Romeo and Juliet know each other is magical and mesmerizing.