Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland

Carroll, L. (1865) Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland.

Plot Description: I chose to read Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland this week.  I’ve seen the movies and read some of the Disney versions of the book, but have never read the original version written by Carroll.  I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this book.  I was afraid that it would be written in a language that would be difficult to understand because of the age of the publication, but that was not the case at all. 

This story starts out with Alice sitting beside her sister in the grass.  She is quite bored and is not interested in looking at the book her sister is reading so she starts looking around.  That is when she sees a peculiar white rabbit hurrying along.  She decides to follow it and ends up falling down a seemingly never ending rabbit hole and this is when Alice’s real adventure begins.

She enters a land where nothing is the same as it used to be including her.  She is constantly changing sizes based on what she eats and drinks and doesn’t even feel like the same person anymore.  She has many different interactions with various creatures, including the white rabbit, a mouse, a caterpillar that smokes hookah, a fish and frog footman, a duchess and Cheshire cat, a mad hatter and march hare, the King and Queen of hearts and a mock turtle.  She is bewildered by how each creature addresses her and thinks most of them are quite rude and demanding.  Near the end of the book she finds herself attending a hearing and testifying, but she starts to grow again.  She becomes agitated with how the court is being run and angers the Queen who rules that her head must be taken off.  At that moment she awakens on the lap of her sister who says she has been asleep for awhile.  The story ends with Alice’s sister recounting her memories from wonderland.


Genre: Fantasy

Age Group: This book would be appropriate for grades 4-8.

Personal Thought:  This book highlights the innocence of Alice and the difficulties she faces in trying to understand everything that is going on around her in the new land she has entered.  I really enjoyed the story and reading about all the differences that have taken place in the adaptations.
 
One of the things I found interesting was that even though this story was geared toward girls (or at least that is my impression) it featured adventure and fantasy, which were genres usually only reserved for boys in that time period.  I also thought it was interesting that all the characters in the book seemed to accept her and treated her like she belonged there even though she was clearly an outsider.

Subject/Themes: Family, Fantasy, Animals

Sarah, Plain and Tall

MacLachlan, P. (1985). Sarah, Plain and Tall. New York: HarperCollins

Plot Description:This was a book that I actually had never heard of so I was interested in checking it out.  This is a short quick read that tells a wonderful story of two children who lost their mother at an early age.  They dearly miss having a mother around because the house was always so cheerful and full of song.  Even their father has stopped singing after their mother passed.  In order to change the situation, Jacob, their father, puts an ad in the paper for a new wife and mother for his children.  Sarah, from Maine, answers the ad and comes to live with the family for a month trial period. During her stay she misses her home and the sea which she longingly talks about.  The children are worried that she does not like them and will not stay so they are constantly worrying about how she feels about them or if she likes their house.  In the end she tells them that although she misses her home she would miss them more if she left. 

Genre: Realistic Fiction, Romance

Age Group: This book would be appropriate for grades 3-6.

Personal Thought:  This story highlights the fears, insecurities, and loneliness felt by children who only have one parent.  I think many children who had similar situations would be able to relate to the story and characters.

Subject/Themes: Family, Insecurity, Farming

Awards: 1986 Newberry Medal and the 1986 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.