Alice in Wonderland (Mary Engelbreit’s Classic Library) by Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland (Mary Engelbreit’s Classic Library)
Lewis Carroll
HarperFestival (2008)
ISBN 9780060081393
Reviewed by Sophia (age 6) and Madeline (age 8) McElroy for Reader Views (4/09)

Madeline:
I think “Alice in Wonderland” is weird and funny. My favorite part is when Alice plays croquet with the Queen of Hearts using hedgehogs for balls and flamingoes for sticks. Another strange tale from the story was of a baby. A woman was rocking her baby and asked Alice to feed him a bottle. Alice picked up the baby and found that it was a baby pig! She thought the pig was yucky and dropped him on the floor. I think other children my age would find this book amusing but they may find it confusing as well. I think I would read this book again.

Sophia:
This is a funny and odd story about a little girl named Alice. My favorite parts of the story were the songs and poems. They are fun to sing and make me laugh, especially the one the Mock Turtle sings about “beautiful soup.” I liked when Alice was so tiny, she was as small as an ant. In the story she grows to the size of a giant and then she would shrink down without warning.

Parent:
Never having read the book “Alice in Wonderland” as a child I was delighted to get the chance to read it with my two daughters. What an amazing tale fueled by the imagination of a girl named Alice. The first half of the book I couldn’t wait to get to the next chapter; the girls and I would giggle at the wonderful adventures Alice was living. However, about the time the King and Queen of Hearts (a literal deck of cards) came on the scene, I was beginning to lose my appetite for the story. It takes many strange twists and turns, complete with the Queen of Hearts dialogue of sometimes multiple pages of gibberish! This was not only confusing to the children but me as well! I think the story goes downhill from here and it felt more laborious to read at that point. This book is supposed to be directed toward 8-years-olds and up, but my girls are reading at 2nd and 4th grade levels and I think it would have been challenging to understand the many nuances if they had read it on their own.