Book 46 of 2013: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Since I've been studying Children's Literature I've been making a real attempt to read more books written for children and young adults, particularly those that have been getting a mention in my course books. One of the first ones to be mentioned was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and as I had it on my Kindle, and it's one of the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die, I figured I'd give it a go.

 

Alice is a little girl who is supposed to be studying with her sister, but she's distracted day dreaming and suddenly spots a white rabbit. Following the rabbit, she takes a tumble down a rabbit hole and finds herself in the weird and wonderful Wonderland. Once there she grows and shrinks so much that she is quite confused about who she is and what she's doing there, and no idea how to get home.

 

I decided to start reading this after watching the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland so it was good to see the similarities and differences between the stories. Plus it had also warranted a mention in the course book and even though it's not a text that we're studying, I thought if it was worth a mention then it was worth reading in the context of the other Children's Literature classics that I'll be studying. In some respects I'm glad that I'm not having to study it because otherwise it might have sucked some of the fun out of the story.

 

I really enjoyed reading this as it was very quick, just under one hundred pages. It made for a nice quick read; started one day and finished the next. I think it would make for a good series of bedtime stories for children because it's nice and zany but it wouldn't take long to get through - there's nothing worse than having a long bedtime story so everyone starts forgetting what happened at the beginning by the time they get to the end.

 

I think that it's a story that's stood up to time really well. Although it's obviously taking place in the past, there's nothing that dates it that much. It's a fantasy so Alice could belong to any era and I think that's something that would help kids to relate to the story.

 

I also felt like there were little nods to the adults who would be reading the story to children. I read this many, many years ago when I was a child, but I don't remember picking up on some of those little jokes when I was younger. It's similar to when I re-read Winnie the Pooh, there were bits in that that I'd never noticed before but which are obviously there for the benefit of the mum or dad or whoever who is reading the bedtime story.

 

At some point I'm planning on reading Through the Looking Glass as well, it'll be interesting to see how that one compares to this now.