Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

This book has become so familiar to us through cartoons and movies that we often forget how very weird it is as a piece of writing. The book begins when Alice, bored of her sister’s company, notices a white rabbit muttering to itself “Oh dear! Oh dear!”, and starts to become curious—not, mind you, because talking rabbits are impossible, but only because they are so very intriguing.

The rest of the book shares this bemused tone: Alice will be subjected to all sorts of indignities, including a near-beheading, but as a “good” Victorian girl, she will generally accept the bizarre… show more.

I have never tired of Alice’s outrageous, surreal romp through the world of imagination.

It transports me to the magical strangeness not only of Wonderland but also of this world. I love the way unlikely adventures can happen, how odd friendships can arise, how reality can shift just as fantasy does. It empowers my own imagination and channels it into creativity and wonder.

Behind it’s light and easy simplicity, this book is truly genius.

No wonder - Carroll was a mathematician and I absolutely love the way his very logical brain built up the most outlandish and nonsensical adventures into a beautiful experience of life itself, with its absurdities and quirky sense of humour.

I love Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The odd characters that Alice comes in contact with and the strangeness of the world she transports to is something I have always found fascinating. The world is unique, which is something I strive for in my writing as well. I spend a lot of time world building for my books and this book is what really showed me the benefits of having a unique and interesting world.

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland is the original talking cat novel, though Carroll wasn’t the first to describe a grinning Cheshire Cat. I read the book as a child and loved it, and was especially taken by the Cheshire Cat who appears and disappears at will, and engages Alice in amusing but perplexing conversations. I never forgot the bit where the cat disappears gradually until nothing is left but its grin.

I still have the edition I was given for Christmas when I was in elementary school, and followed Alice down the rabbit hole into the original “Upside-Down.” I was ready for the wordplay, the utter strangeness of Wonderland, and how Alice held her own against Red Queens and hookah-smoking caterpillars and the rest. It freed my imagination from the bonds of realism.

You may have read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a child, but it may be worth another read as an adult. Did you know that Lewis Carroll was also a mathematician, logician, professor, philosopher, and poet? As an adult, I have become enchanted by the cascading levels of deeper, and at times esoteric, meaning Carroll encoded into this tale and its sequel. It seems that Taylor, too, was inspired by Alice. Some of the many references to Wonderland in her work include: lyrics about falling down the rabbit hole, a song titled "Wonderland," and Alice imagery in music… show more.

Bear with me for a moment. Yes, there are grave and deep questions about Lewis Carroll, none of which I’d ever minimize, but when talking about great MG books featuring chess, Alice is the OG. Alice’s second adventure mirrors a game of chess in the action and character arcs. At the beginning of this tale, Alice is powerless, a true pawn. In order to reach her goal, she has no choice but to follow the rules of the game; all of which are fixed and unmovable. Yet, through the story, she becomes more confident and able, maturing and eventually evolves… show more.

I love the comical madness that Lewis Carroll has created for Alice. I can’t help but think of Escape rooms and fun challenges that we engage in to replicate the imaginative worlds we’ve read about in books like Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. I love that this is a girl’s adventure, and we join her as she is questioning, following her instincts, and reasoning with the unreasonable.

One of the first memories of a portal-hopping character as a kid was Alice. The book taught me that no matter what is happening in the world, books are very much like wonderland: a new world and a way to find yourself. I recommend this one to all of the middle-grade readers out there because first, it’s a classic. Second, it’s just a whole lot of fun.

As a kid who was bullied a lot, it helped me feel that I had a place, even if it was having tea parties with fictional characters. This book actually inspired my trilogy.