Read Me! 6 Delightful Books for Fans of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
by Tom Burns
Without a doubt, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the most influential works of children’s literature ever published. It’s become one of those books where, when you read it, the text almost sounds clichéd until you remind yourself, “Oh yeah, THIS is the original. Stealing from THIS book is how the cliché began.”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year (wow). If you’re a big Wonderland fan, here are six tremendous books — a mixture of original works and adaptations — that have all been inspired by the indelible legacy of Lewis Carroll’s Alice.
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The Phantom Tollbooth
Available from:Even if their stories weren’t so similar — a bored young child finds a magical portal to a weird new world of nonsense and chaos — The Phantom Tollbooth and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland would still be spiritual cousins, if only because of their shared sense of humor and linguistic flair. Any true Carroll fan will love Milo’s travels through Dictionopolis, a landscape as brilliantly absurd as anything in Wonderland.
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Available from:There must be hundreds of different editions of Alice circulating throughout the world. Some with John Tenniel’s original 1865 illustrations, some with wildly different artistic takes on Carroll’s original text. One that deserves your attention is this new 150th anniversary edition of Alice, which has been charmingly illustrated and designed by Anna Bond from Rifle Paper Company.
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Zorgamazoo
Available from:This remarkable chapter book, told entirely in rhyming couplets, is so wildly creative, you can almost imagine Lewis Carroll reading it aloud himself. A brave young girl named Katrina Katrell follows a strange creature into the subway, kicking off a mad adventure to find the lost Zorgles of Zorgamazoo. It would be hard to find a book that has more fun with words (this side of Alice, of course).
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Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll purists might not want to hear this, but there are many, many children who only know about Alice and the Mad Hatter thanks to the 1951 Disney animated film. While the movie is a genial mess story-wise, it has endured largely thanks to its memorable design work by artist Mary Blair. Fans of Blair’s "Alice" will adore this adaptation of the movie, which pairs up Blair’s beautiful concept paintings with text written by Stinky Cheese Man author Jon Scieszka.
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Just about EVERY children’s book that features a young child stumbling into a fantasy world owes some debt to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — Peter Pan, C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, to name a few — and that includes L. Frank Baum’s Oz series. Kids who only know Oz from the Judy Garland movie will have their minds blown by this graphic novel adaptation. Skottie Young’s boldly bizarre illustrations bring the same verve to the text that John Tenniel’s artwork brought to the original Alice.
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Abarat
Barker might be best known as a horror icon, but he’s written some terrific kids’ books, mostly notably The Thief of Always and his obviously Alice-inspired Abarat. In this extraordinary young adult novel, Candy Quackenbush, a teenager looking to escape her depressing home life, finds herself transported to Abarat, a land of islands, where each island represents an hour of the day. Candy ends up having to help defend Abarat from the Lord of Midnight, a villain who definitely shares some DNA with Carroll’s Red Queen.
