Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
By: Lewis Carroll
Published: 1865
My rating: Wonderful

What fun this book is!! I just finished reading it to my kids and I loved it even more than I had as a kid! The Disney movie adaptation, that represents the only exposure most kids today have had to this delightful story, is wonderful but does not do it justice.

I can't help but love Alice's crazy imagination and the insane journey that it takes her on. I love all of the fun characters and the great nonsensical dialog that drips from every page of this book! Alice is such a wonderful little girl and the way her mind works through each new craziness she encounters is utterly delightful! Her child's mind grasps things in a way so different from our adult minds and the conclusions she arrives at could only come from the mind of a child! I love how Alice takes so much of this insanity as a matter of due course and just goes with it, seeing where it will take her! And all that growing and shrinking! I found myself wondering if I should be brave enough to eat anything in Wonderland, that is, if I ever decide to visit! I fear that Alice is a much braver soul than I!

I also am astounded by the imagination of Lewis Carroll in this work. I envy his ability to come up with such an array of impossible characters. He is truly a genius and nobody will ever be able to convince me otherwise! The plot of this book, if it actually is a plot, is just so much fun. There is never any doubt that you will be surprised by each page. I love every bit of the story from the moment the White Rabbit runs past to the grand finale in the court room of the Queen of Hearts. I love the way the Queen is always sentencing everyone to beheading and the King is pardoning them! I love the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon, the Cheshire Cat, and especially the Mad Hatter and The March Hare. And of course, who can help but love Bill the lizard, whom I most related to!

I think that the best part of this book is the way it brings back the crazy childish things we used to imagine! I often wish I could reload my brain with an old backup copy from my childhood, and go back to those days when anything was possible! As we grow up we lose so much of that invaluable way of thinking. Imagine for a moment a world where everyone retained at least some of their child's mind instead of growing up to be sour, grumpy, serious minded adults. I like to think that somewhere in our little gray cells, a little bit of that still remains. Reading this book again, reassures me that it's true.

I hope that all of you will take the time out of your busy schedules to get this wonderful book and read it, even if you don't have kids to read it to! When you get it, do as the King advises, "Begin at the beginning, go on 'til you come to the end, then stop."