Alice in Wonderland

The time frame for its arrival was off a bit. You said it would arrive January 27 but it didn't reach me until February 2.

In just ten pages of text, Walt Disney Enterprises retell's Lewis Carroll's classic tale ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND for younger children. This edition of the story moves very quickly from Alice sitting with her cat and sister to chasing the white rabbit down the hole and entering the weird wonderland that is so famous. On every other page is an illustration from Disney's cartoon of this famous tale. Kids will love the pictures even if the journey that Alice makes is somewhat disjointed due the huge abridgement. Nonetheless, it's a great tale of imagination and fantasy that children have enjoyed for many years.

This is my preferred copy of AAIW, and I have several. The quality of the illustrations is superior, because they were made from recently excavated printing blocks. The result is they reveal greater detail than I had seen before, leaving me more impressed than ever with John Tenniel's talent--as if Lewis Carroll's wasn't enough. A beautiful, beautiful book.

As a person who likes to collect different illustrated versions of "Alice in Wonderland", this edition by Angel Dominguez (Artisan, 1996) is perhaps the best that I have encountered so far. There are many full page illustrations that are simply amazing to look at. With a detailed style that occasionally reminds me of Graeme Base, he populates "Wonderland" with all sorts of exotic birds and animals, some of which aren't usually included in illustrated versions of Alice, such as anteaters, platypuses, hippos, etc. But they lend an air of strangeness to this imaginary world that nonetheless seems to be appropriate. The artist has included a number of unique touches to the world of Alice, and they all fit in wonderfully with the spirit of the book. I would definitely say this book is worth buying for your "Alice" collection.

While this is generally considered a "children's book", Alice In Wonderland can only be fully appreciated by adults or teenagers. It contains so many private jokes, grammar puns, and other such stuff that a child would not understand it, really. I first read it when I was in first grade, a rather hard book really for first graders, and loved it incredibly. But rereading every year of my life since then (I am now fifteen) one finally can truly relish the great puns and imaginative ideas that Carroll (or Dodgson, his real name) placed within this extremely random book. Yes, there really isn't much of a single plot. It jumps from place to place. Just like a real dream. I don't understand why some people think that this is "scary" for little children though. C'mon, the Wizard of Oz and Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes (when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall- if little children aren't afraid of THAT, I don't what would scare them) is more frightening than this beautifully-crafted story. Note that the Queen of Hearts, though she has an insatiable urge to decapitate every person she sees, never really kills anyone- the Griffin says so. It's not frightening, rather, it's full of what little children like- randomness, smiling cats, violent-tempered queens, talking rabbits, and imaginary animals. If one is discovering this book for the first time, let it enchant you. If you are re-discovering this book, find in it the things you couldn't find before. If you are simply re-reading it for the fiftieth time (like me), then enjoy every single moment of it. It really is one of the best books I have read, right up there with- dare I say it- Colour Purple and Les Miserables. Yes, even Les Miserables.