Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Book: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Genre: MG Fantasy
Rating: B
For: Fun
From: the library

I'm sure it's no mystery as to why this book has suddenly shown up in my list. I'm thinking lots of people have decided to check it out recently. I not only have the movie to blame, but my daughter (JJ, the 18 year old one) also.

It's because AFTER watching the movie, she realized this book was on her classics reading list for English, so she promptly checked it out from the library. After reading it, in one afternoon, she handed the book to me to return. So I thought, what the heck, might as well read it quickly before taking it back.

And now I must say, I don't get it! It's so strange to me that this book became such a household name and one of the most familiar stories of all time, because wow, it's a weird one! Truly nothing in it makes sense, there is not plot, there is nothing to follow. It's just Alice and her dream, and everything that happens is just like a dream would be. Bouncing from thing to thing to thing, and nothing is really connected, and everything is just weird. But a good fun weird really. Which, I suppose, is why it IS so popular.

I had to force myself to get through it though, even if it only took an hour or two. Later I learned that Toto's 5th grade class attempted it as a teacher read aloud book, and they abandoned it out of boredom.

Having confessed all that, I still gave it an okay rating because it is so clever and so classic and so much a part of our culture. But I think what we think of Alice's adventures are actually two books. Because in this book, there is no Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum.... are they in the Looking Glass book? I'm so totally clueless. My guess is there's a couple of adventures, and we've put them all together in our head. Also, the book I read had hardly any resemblance to the movie I just saw!

At least I can now say I've read the book, one of them anyway.

Bottom line: It was okay. (Maybe I just wasn't in a silly enough mood?)

For more on Lewis Carroll (and probably where I could find answers to all my Alice questions) click here.

Other Reviews:

Bookfoolery and Babble
All About {n}
The Zen Leaf
Educating Petunia
What Cheesy Reads

And just in case you've been living under a rock, you really should watch this trailer for the recent movie: