Reviews for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass

The average rating for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-05-27 00:00:00 Kayt Fitzpatrick I think that the failure not only of Children's Literature as a whole, but of our very concept of children and the child's mind is that we think it a crime to challenge and confront that mind. Children are first protected from their culture--kept remote and safe--and then they are thrust incongruously into a world that they have been told is unsafe and unsavory; and we expected them not to blanch. It has been my policy that the best literature for children is not a trifling thing, not a simplification of the adult or a sillier take on the world. Good Children's literature is some of the most difficult literature to write because one must challenge, engage, please, and awe a mind without resorting to archetypes or life experience. Once a body grows old enough, we are all saddened by the thought of a breakup. We have a set of knowledge and memories. The pain returns to the surface. Children are not born with these understandings, so to make them understand pain, fear, and loss is no trivial thing. The education of children is the transformation of an erratic and hedonistic little beast into a creature with a rational method by which to judge the world. A child must be taught not to fear monsters but to fear instead electrical outlets, pink slips, poor people, and lack of social acceptance. The former is frightening in and of itself, the latter for complex, internal reasons. I think the real reason that culture often fears sexuality and violence in children is because they are such natural urges. We fear to trigger them because we cannot control the little beasts. We cannot watch them every minute. So, to write Children's Literature, an author must create something complex and challenging, something that the child can turn over in their mind without accidentally revealing some terrible aspect of the world that the child is not yet capable of dealing with. Carroll did this by basing his fantasies off of complex, impersonal structures: linguistics and mathematical theory. These things have all the ambiguity, uncertainty, and structure of the grown-up world without the messy, human parts. This is also why the Alice stories fulfill another requirement I have for Children's Lit: that it be just as intriguing and rewarding for adults. There is no need to limit the depth in books for children, because each reader will come away with whatever they are capable of finding. Fill an attic with treasures and the child who enters it may find any number of things--put a single coin in a room and you ensure that the child will find it, but nothing more. Of course, we must remember that nothing we can write will ever be more strange or disturbing to a child than the pure, unadulterated world that we will always have failed to prepare them for. However, perhaps we can fail a little less and give them Alice. Not all outlets are to be feared, despite what your parents taught you. In fact, some should be prodded with regularity, and if you dare, not a little joy.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-04-22 00:00:00 Marvin Goldsby THIS BOOK IS MY DREAM. It’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, plus Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, plus a ton of critical analysis and fun facts and biographical info and poetry and background and cultural and period information and bonus illustrations and basically all you need or could ever want to know, except if you’re me and your love for and curiosity about Alice and Lewis Carroll and Wonderland will never be satiated. And also it’s about a square yard and the font is tiny and it weighs about 30 pounds and takes an eternity to read. I loved this so much that it made my heart hurt to finish it. My version of paradise is probably something like this, where I’m alternating between reading the original text I love more than anything and eloquent, wise, humorous elaboration on things I had never known. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. I guess you could say I grew…curiouser and curiouser. I love myself. Anyway, my bookmark for this book was a folded-up sheet of lined paper on which I wrote down the titles and works of art and research queries I wanted to know more about as I read. I filled up both sides of that sheet. Absolutely every aspect of this book is gorgeous and curated and fascinating. I don’t really know how to review this because it basically transcended reading for me. It was just a perfect experience. Bottom line: If you love Alice like I do, or really really like it, you need to read this book. It’s a gift. That’s all I can say. ----------- pre-review i have never, in my entire life, cried in public over a book. until today. THIS BOOK MADE ME CRY IN PUBLIC! more of a review to come??