Alice in Wonderland Hardcover – October 1, 2017

I had a difficult time determing which version was being reviewed in many of these reviews, so I am specifically reviewing the version that is illustrated by Anna Bond. This is a great version to use with younger kids- it has larger print and illustrations on almost every page. If you want to purchase accompanying audio to listen with, just buy the unabridged version and it should be a match.

My original purchase of Kindle's "Alice in Wonderland" a few years ago, the cover shown in the store was exactly like the book I had as a child, along with the same original illustrations. Then I discovered that after I had it in my library for a while, it wasn't what I bought! It was inexpensive, so I looked again in the store...guess what? You can't judge a book by it's cover. Even Amazon can't do it! This review will turn up, as others I've read for any book with the same title, or a variation...Alice's Adventure in Wonderland or "Adventures" , Alice in Wonderland, The Complete Adventures of Alice in Wonderland!!!!!! Egad! I've got 3 or 4 different editions, and can't seem to move to the trash, delete, dip in pieces AAUGH!!!

Alice in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is dreaming and there is no way for me as a reader to tell what physical abilities she may have while awake; could Alice have a physical disability? As a reader with Cerebral Palsy, I think yes, in this paper I will interpret Alice as disabled.There are some passages that I find interesting as they seem to be confirming my theory. The way the Caucus Race Lewis Carroll described The Caucus Race is "All the party were placed along the course here and there. There was no 'One, two, three, and away' but they began running when they liked and left off when they liked..." at last, the Dodo said everybody has won, and all must have prizes.'' As a player of adapted sports, this attitude is not nonsensical but quite normal, as these are often the rules in adapted sports that are less intense for disabled people. Alice also struggles to hold the Duchess' pig-baby. It says "... Kept doubling itself up and straightening itself out again, so that altogether, for the first minute or two, it was as much as she could do to hold it." I've never held a live baby, but since my right arm is weak, it seems logical that I would struggle to do this. She also struggles with holding her flamingo during the game of croquet. It says "The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face." The fact that the Queen of Hearts, the villain of the piece, whom the dreaming Alice has created is ableist to the extreme is how the mind of a disabled person like me, would recreate that person in my head. Alice has experienced ableism in real life, and she emotionally processes it through creating this over-the-top situation in her dream. Lewis Carrol only says of the other players that they were "Quarreling," not that they struggled with their flamingos. As a final note, while it does say Alice ran to get to the house at the end of the story, Alice says in "Down The Rabbit Hole" "I shall think nothing of tumbling downstairs! How brave they'll think me at home!" The Line ``How brave they'll think me at home!" implies that this happens more often than it happens to most normally developed children, her Disability may affect some physical abilities and not others. For example, I have the most control over my legs and the least control over my hands. There is also how “Involved” the stuff Alice does in Wonderland is, to begin with.The content of Alice's dream represents her ambitions, which for a disabled person can be the simplest things. Most of the stuff done in Wonderland is simple, day-to-day activities. Alice dreams of swimming, eating, drinking, having a race, going to a tea party, learning a dance, playing a sport(Croquet), playing fetch with a dog, walking around, talking to people; all given a delightfully bizarre spin by Lewis Carroll; which like the quotes in the paragraph above suggest on a normal day her disability may not let her do the simplest things. The poems being repeated by Alice were based by Lewis Carroll on real poems, and that means Alice is consciously integrating them into her dream like I do today with popular characters and celebrities. This is why I can see myself as Alice rather than just identify with her.Alice's Adventures in Wonderland gave me confidence in my disabled identity. The Caucus Race had the same rules as the adapted sports I was allowed to play, making the fact that they isolated me from my abled-bodied peers easier. Alice and I both have a strong intellect, She thinks about how far she's fallen, she thinks about how to get into the garden, math, geography, and poetry the typical way we measure intellect, in the first two chapters alone. Alice is disturbed by the fact that she can't seem to remember the things she used to know, She says to the Caterpillar ``I can't remember the things I used".I have Cerebral Palsy, and the one thing I got praise for more than anything else was being smart. None of the other characters seem to notice Alice is smart, this is because there is a stereotype that the disabled aren't smart. Throughout Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' the characters doubt, or simply ignore Alice's intellect. The Caterpillar tells Alice of her rendition of “You Are Old Father William'' that “It was wrong from beginning to end' When told by Alice that “The Earth takes 24 hours to turn around on its axis” the Duchess replies “Talking of axes, chop off her head!” The Mad Hatter teases her with “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” and then tells her he has no idea what the answer is. The Mock Turtle and the Griffin let her explain a little bit of her rendition of “Tis the Voice of the Sluggard.'' Soon after saying that the poem is too hard for them; Alice is making progress. When she finally gets to prove her intellect, called as a witness at the Knave's trial, saying that the evidence “Has not an atom of meaning in it.” and that sentencing someone first is “Stuff and nonsense!” but the response is “Off with her head!” Nevertheless, the Queen of Hearts acknowledges that what Alice said makes sense to her, sending the cards upon her, ending her dream, and finally validating her intellect. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland makes me value my intellect, even if I don't consider breaking stereotypes valuable to myself. The fact that Wonderland is a dream provides me with the opportunity to say “I can go on an adventure, defeat a villain, just like everybody else” because Alice isn't doing anything except sleeping! That's why the “It's only a dream” ending can be molded into something beautiful.Alice is dreaming, there's hardly any way to judge what abilities she possesses. Wonderland is more accommodating, requiring no physical feats of daring-do, just a chance to prove one's intellect. Her physical struggles in Wonderland reflect her physical struggles in real life. Navigating Wonderland lets her figure out how to combat ableism and oppression. The idea that maybe Alice could be like me is a magical and realistic ending for intelligent, imaginative, and adventurous girls like me and Alice.

Multiplicity of editions can be frustrating if you want to spend correctly just once. The AmazonClassics edition is a very good edition, almost perfect, it has X-Ray, the original illustrations in a good size, modern typography and a very polished formatting; except one part: there is a beautiful poem/tale, "The Mouse's Tale", in which a mishearing makes Alice to blend tail with tale and the story appears typographically in a quite beautiful shape of a tail, sinuously getting narrower til being as thick as an individual letter. Unfortunately in the AmazonClassics Edition the shape is rather like a sinuous river, it losses its meaning. I checked other kindle edition I have, "Alice in Wonderland: The Complete Collection" edition by Maplewood Books, the illustrations are a bit less clear (at least that was I felt), the formatting, although good, it's not as exemplar as the AmazonClassics Edition but to my tranquility "The Mouse's Tale" is formatted faithful to the original, so I will stick to that complete edition and I won't get the second book, "Through the Looking-Glass," in the AmazonClassics Edition, for fear that it will not express the intentions of the author.Peculiar book. Although built of meaningful blocks of events, as a group they are surreal; if there exists a meaning, is meant for only an initiated in the reasons of the story. For what I read it could be for the amusement of a little girl friend of Lewis Carroll. I love it very much. Weird and all, inscrutable and unfathomable as it is to me at the same time it is exciting and mind blowing. Alice falls into another world, one that changes like a dream but whereas we as actors of our dreams change along them. Instead Alice lives them quite consciously, as one of those old memories of strange events or creatures you saw, in which you are not that sure if it actually happened or, being that fantastic, it was a reverie feed by being in an unfamiliar place.

It is really beautiful edition printed on a high quality paper for any admirer of Alice adventures and/or Dali's art. His paintings illustrate each chapter and are printed on the third page from the beginning of each chapter. It is so thrilling to look at each picture during reading the chapter and trying to figure what and why Dali decided to paint.Dali's art is not everything what this edition has to offer. There are two pieces of introduction which I found very interesting. First one is written by Mark Burstain explaining why the surrealists were so interested in Carroll book and the second one of Thomas Banchoff who actually met with Dali many times and provided us with some of stories about the genius. Both of them helped me better understand the madness of Dali, or as Carroll and the surrealists preferred to address: the wisdom.

I am a fan of Alice and her adventures. Reading about them in my eightieth year reignites my imagination and the child within. I know some people do not take to the fantasy world she inhabits, but everyone, if adult, should read 'Alice in Wonderland' to test themselves, and 'Alice through the Looking Glass' awaits if the the fire is lit. One of the joys of life is to read 'Alice in Wonderland' to a child and discuss it together, preferably before they get to see any of the modern film versions.

Estou maravilhada com essa edição, um primor. O livro é todo ilustrado, tem uma sobrecapa igualmente linda e para quem está aprendendo inglês como eu, não achei difícil a leitura.

As so many reviews on this site end up getting cross-posted I should stress that this review is for the Amazon Classics Edition of this book, which has the original illustrations, with those wonderful pictures by John Tenniel, and which have influenced all other illustrators of the book since. First published in 1865 of course Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who along with his novels and poems also wrote mathematical books, and invented and created things.Still immensely popular and inspiring many others in the arts (not only with novelists) so this is quite possibly the world’s most famous children’s book and is always something worth introducing the younger members of your family to. Of course though, this book is still great for us older readers, as it not only brings back a piece of nostalgia but also, we can perhaps appreciate even more so the word games and other puns here. Because over the years there have been a number of other illustrators doing the artwork for different editions of this, and because our concerns and priorities have also changed so at times it is perhaps easy to miss the more symbolic things here, which show us a parody of life in the Victorian era. As the author was a mathematician so we can see that he alludes to this in places where he is scathing of the new mathematics that were starting to appear, and which would ultimately lead to new advances such as eventually quantum physics.And so we read of here when Alice first went down the rabbit hole following the white rabbit who is late for an appointment. Just the beginning of her weird and wonderful adventure where we meet the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen, the Cheshire Cat and many other characters. Always entertaining and definitely fun this is a book that was a massive hit when it first came out, has never been out of print, and is an essential novel for any family library. To be honest there are not many books that you read as a child and can still remember many years later, showing the skill of the author here, as well as incorporating artwork, after all we are told to just look at the picture if we do not know what a gryphon is.

Yes, I hold up my hand and admit that I'm one of those who has seen the 1951 animated Disney motion picture after having been treated to it (on VHS, no less) for one of my birthdays as a child, and now having read the first part of its source material, Disney did a fantastic job of adapting this "nonsense" to the big screen.I do say "nonsense" kindly of course. Does the story make sense? No, not at all, but that's the idea! I've worked with children who were given free rein to write stories and their ideas were usually bonkers and all over the place. That's what made this fun, if perhaps a little frustrating for adult readers in that it doesn't follow a logical sequence of beginning, middle and end. I bet Lewis Carroll had great fun writing it, however.I'd thoroughly recommend the audio book version narrated by Miriam Margolyes, who does a smashing job of narrating it and bringing Carroll's nonsensical characters to life.Kindle Edition: 4/5Audible Edition: 5/5

Time to read: 2 hoursTime to explain to child what the hell is happening: 3 hoursWhile I appreciate the book was written in a different time, and there are some wonderful passages, on the whole the book is just a lot of old nonsense. Which I think was the point. It was an exercise in frippery, of making something nonsensical.The adaptations of the book do an excellent job of turning this confused half-story into something enjoyable. My daughter enjoyed the fact that she was reading it/having it read to her, but really wasn't grasping much of what was going on.