Amazon.com
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, among 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.
For more than 130 years, children have reveled in the delightfully non-moralistic, non-educational virtues of this classic. In fact, at every turn, Alice's new companions scoff at her traditional education. The Mock Turtle, for example, remarks that he took the "regular course" in school: Reeling, Writhing, and branches of Arithmetic-Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision. Carroll believed John Tenniel's illustrations were as important as his text. Naturally, Carroll's instincts were good; the masterful drawings are inextricably tied to the well-loved story. (All ages) --Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
If Zwerger's Alice (reviewed above) is deliciously cryptic, Oxenbury's (Tom and Pippo books) brims with the fun and frights of a visit to an amusement park. In perhaps her most ambitious work to date, Oxenbury applies her finely honed instinct for a child's perspective to create an Alice accessible to all ages. With the opening scene of a tomboyish heroine slumped against her sister who is reading under a tree, the artist seems to answer Alice's first line: "What is the use of a book... without pictures or conversations?" Nearly every spread contains either a spot-line drawing or full-bleed full-color painting. The artist nods to Tenniel with her hilarious portrait of the waistcoated White Rabbit and even extends the metaphor of the "grin without a cat" with a quartet of watercolors as the Cheshire Cat begins to disappearAuntil only his grin remains. The villains here are more stoogelike than menacing, including the baby-throwing Duchess and the Queen of Hearts, and Oxenbury makes the most of such comic opportunities as the entangled powdered wigs of the Frog-Footman and Fish-Footman. A series of cleverly choreographed closing scenes shows Alice in the Queen's courtroom, pelted by the playing cards that, on the next spread, seem to have transformed into the falling leaves of the tree where Alice awakens and her sister gives her a kiss; a poignant parting shot of Alice's sister silhouetted at dusk under the tree, with sheep grazing in the field, acknowledges the shift in tone of Carroll's conclusion. An ideal first introduction to a lifelong favorite read. Ages 8-up. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4 Up-- Edens has compiled and arranged illustrations from 25 editions of Alice in Wonderland published in the early to mid-1900s. The result is a fascinating look at a variety of illustrative styles. This is far less jarring than one might expect because the original illustrator, John Tenniel, has so strongly influenced his successors that their interpretations are often similar in design. In fact, the fascination in these pictures is the differing details--Alice's dress, her hairstyle, and her expressions tell much about the time period and the artist's viewpoint. Edens has also done a fine job of integrating the pictures with the text. He varies interest by utilizing full-page plates, half plates, vignettes, and even reducing some illustrations to fit the design so the book flows fairly well and these myriad illustrations blend into a whole rather than distract the eye. The reproduction is excellent. A must for collections with historical interest in children's literature and large libraries. --Karen K. Radtke, Milwaukee Public LibraryCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Parents' Choice®
Rarely is the word "masterpiece" used in reviewing anything, but this unabridged edition of a classic definitely brings the word to mind, in hushed and reverent tones. Oxenbury has boldly offered a fresh look at Alice and her friends. The soft palette, creamy colors interspersed with engaging line drawings, and creative page layout, draw one hypnotically to the story. The double-page spreads pleasantly startle, often with a grand feel of movement. When choosing for a home library, consider this one and the original Tenniel drawings. Buy both - a win/win situation! A 2000 Parents' Choice® Gold Award winner.
Reviewed by Yvonne Coleman, Parents' Choice® 2000
From AudioFile
Reader Michael Page offers a rollicking performance of the 1865 children's classics, which don't seem dated in the least in his skillful hands. Every character is presented with a distinctly different tone, pacing and inflection. His narration is gently expressive; his British accent perfectly in keeping with the setting and characters. Happily, he doesn't slavishly imitate the well-known voices from the Disney cartoon version; his interpretation is distinct and complete in itself. This is a first-class presentation. D.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From Booklist
Gr. 4^-6, younger for reading aloud. There is no end to the available editions of Alice, of course, but here is one worth having. It is in a nice big format, with an exquisite typeface, easy to read and to hold in the lap. It has a genial and erudite introduction by Leonard Marcus, with a bit of biography of Carroll and some Alice publishing history, but, most of all, there are unusual, engrossing illustrations. Morell has taken the original Tenniel images, placed them in collage with realia, and photographed the resultant construction in black-and-white. The artifact of the book is used to great effect: the hole the White Rabbit descends is cut into a large book; the Tenniel caterpillar and Alice peering over the mushroom's edge poke up from the pages of a book in a swirl of smoke; the tea party table is a big old book with a checkerboard cover. This edition illuminates the familiar story in ways that point up its essential, strange "magick." GraceAnne A. DeCandido
Midwest Book Review
This oversized, lavish, unabridged edition of Carroll's classic joins the works of Spanish artist Angel Dominguez with the Carroll fairy tale. Over seventy new watercolor illustrations blend Dominguez's unique style with the Alice story: the full-page color leaps from the page and makes this a very special edition suitable for all ages.
Book Description
Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title—offering clear, accurate, and readable text.
Life gets strange when Alice sees a white rabbit wearing a coat and gloves. thens he follows him down a hole. Suddenly she grows smaller, larger, smaller, larger, smaller--and almost drowns in her own tears--
She meets a Dodo, a Lizard, a smoking Caterpillar, a Duchess...a Cat without a grin. Then a grin without a Cat. She has a mad tea party with a Hatter and a Hare.
And a madder croquet game with a King--where playing card soldiers are the hoops, flamingoes are the mallets, hedgehogs are the balls and the Queen of Hearts cries "Off with their heads!" Which lands Alice, the Mock Turtle, and a Gryphon (a what?) at a trial without rules where death is the penalty! In Wonderland, anything can happen--
And probably anything will...
The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Novel by Lewis Carroll, published in 1865. Alice is one of the best-known and most popular works of English-language fiction. It was notably illustrated by John Tenniel. The story centers on Alice, a young girl who falls asleep in a meadow and dreams that she follows a White Rabbit down a rabbit hole. She has many wondrous, often bizarre adventures with thoroughly illogical and very strange creatures. Often changing size unexpectedly (she grows as tall as a house and shrinks to three inches), Alice encounters such characters as the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, the Duchess, the Mad Hatter, the Mock Turtle, and the Red Queen. Carroll also wrote a sequel, THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, and both books are sometimes referred to as Alice in Wonderland.
Card catalog description
A little girl falls down a rabbit hole and discovers a world of nonsensical and amusing characters. Features twenty-four reproductions of glass slides originally used in the mid-1880's.
From the Publisher
"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English.) "Now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!"Alice and all her many friends will never be forgotten so long as books for children are published. The fascinating adventures of this timeless little girl as she plunges down the rabbit-hole, shrinks and grows, meets the pack of cards and the chess pieces -- should be read regularly by all ages for their totally original fantasy, their humor, and their charm.
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