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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass

Monday Night Book Discussions

“ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND & THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS”
(written by Lewis Carroll)

Salina Public Library

Salina, KS

I read this book when I was a child and I can honestly say that I didn’t really appreciate it. Perhaps it’s because of my age when I read this book. I was always reading books that were for older children. So I’m so glad that I had a chance to re-read this book now. The situations, the incredible word play, and it’s all packed into a fast paced read that doesn’t disappoint. There is a certain logic to what happens to Alice and the beings around her. The reader is clued into this from the start. So as you read you do buy into the story and enter this fantastical land which resembles our society and yet doesn’t. I think there has to be a set of similar circumstances that mirror our world in order to understand this other world. As you read, you understand what will happen when she drinks things or eats things, or a myriad of other possibilities that occur when she meets various beings along the way. At the end of this story all the lose ends seem to be tied up and the reader wonders how there could possibly be another world for Alice to travel too. But there is . . .

Alice enters her mirror and finds another world that mirrors her own reality. Nothing operates there like it should but once again the reader is clued into the logic early on, so once again the insanity makes sense. One of my favorite parts of this story is when Alice becomes a queen and hangs out with the red queen and white queen. The illustration in the book is priceless. I felt like I was hanging out with the girls on the square.

I think readers of all ages will enjoy this book. My only caution would be that for younger children, it would be best to read this to them, so that a discussion can take place about what might be going on in the story to give them a better grasp of what the book is about. I know that would have helped me understand the story and appreciate it more when I read it as a child.

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