Beth and Chrissi do Kid-Lit – JANUARY READ – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

Whats it all about?:

Source of legend and lyric, reference and conjecture, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is, for most children, pure pleasure in prose. While adults try to decipher Lewis Carroll’s putative use of complex mathematical codes in the text, or debate his alleged use of opium, young readers simply dive with Alice through the rabbit hole, pursuing “The dream-child moving through a land / Of wonders wild and new”. There they encounter the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle and the Mad Hatter, together with a multitude of other characters–extinct, fantastical and commonplace creatures. Alice journeys through this Wonderland, trying to fathom the meaning of her strange experiences. But they turn out to be “curiouser and curiouser”, seemingly without moral or sense.

What did I think?:

I read this book as part of my Kid-Lit challenge with my sister but I originally came across Alice as I think we all did, as a child. I had a beautifully illustrated hardback copy of the book and it was one of my most treasured possessions (as were all books!). The imagination of Lewis Carroll knows no boundaries and we are taken for a magical ride meeting a host of wonderful and unusual characters along the way. One of my favourite characters has to be the Cheshire Cat, the image of everything disappearing apart from a manical grin is an image that will always stick with me.

Re-reading the book as an adult I was surprised to find things that I had forgotten. For example – the baby that turns into a pig and wanders off into the forest. Somebody call Childline!! I often wonder where on earth Carroll got his ideas from (allegedly opiates but that’s neither here nor there. I thoroughly enjoyed re-visiting Alice’s Wonderland and am hoping to follow it up with Through The Looking Glass, maybe in a Kid-Lit Challenge for 2014?

I don’t know if its the big kid in me, but I think I’m going to like this challenge!!

Please also see Chrissi’s review at http://chrissireads.wordpress.com

Would I recommend it?:

But of course!

Star rating (out of 5):