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Alice in the 21st Century
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From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Tue, 03 Oct 2000 10:40:54 +0100
The time has', Ms. Horning said,
'To talk of many things: Of cats --- mice --- and little girls Of duchesses --- and queens--And why this book is still so grand --And whether all agree.'
A self-proclaimed Alice-phile, I'm delighted to be leading this conversation on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. First published in 1865 it is remarkable that, over a century later, it is still one of the most well-known children's books of all time.
Last July, Scholastic chairman Dick Robinson said that the Harry Potter books were like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. "It's about children battling for themselves and for good in a world of good and evil," he told the New York Times. "It's the classic story of a young person thrust into a world of danger." Now, much as I adore the Alice books (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-glass), neither is a rip-roaring yarn on the order of the Harry Potter books. Nor do I think Alice is on a crusade to fight evil (unless you consider bad manners and stupidity evil.) However, I do think they are alike in that everyone knows them. You can know about Harry Potter and Alice without having read either one. And both are probably going to be around for a long time to come.
The book has been great favorite of mine since I was small. I always wanted to go to Wonderland and, neither as an adult or as a child, saw the darkness so many others seem to see there. My image of Wonderland is neither as ominous as the one imagined by illustrator Barry Moser
(Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982) nor as sunny as Helen Oxenbury's recent Carnegie Medal winning edition (Candlewick Press, 1999.)
Some adults wonder if Alice is still accessible to children. I think it is
-- absolutely! Those who have visited Roxanne Feldman and my "Many Faces of Alice" Web site or read my article "Adventuring with Alice" in last winter's Riverbank Review will hopefully have come away with a sense of children truly knowing and loving the book.
So please, I invite you all to give us your own opinions, experiences, and thoughts about Alice. What do you like and don't you like about the book?
What were your experiences with it as an adult and child? Are some of you using it with children at home, in libraries, in schools? What do you think about the different illustrated editions? Is it heresy (as some think) to attempt to improve upon John Tenniel's illustrations for the first edition? (Or Carroll's for that matter?) How does Disney confound or support children's appreciation of the actual text? What about its place in the world of children's literature today? Or anything else!
Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Tue 03 Oct 2000 04:40:54 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 03 Oct 2000 10:40:54 +0100
The time has', Ms. Horning said,
'To talk of many things: Of cats --- mice --- and little girls Of duchesses --- and queens--And why this book is still so grand --And whether all agree.'
A self-proclaimed Alice-phile, I'm delighted to be leading this conversation on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. First published in 1865 it is remarkable that, over a century later, it is still one of the most well-known children's books of all time.
Last July, Scholastic chairman Dick Robinson said that the Harry Potter books were like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. "It's about children battling for themselves and for good in a world of good and evil," he told the New York Times. "It's the classic story of a young person thrust into a world of danger." Now, much as I adore the Alice books (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-glass), neither is a rip-roaring yarn on the order of the Harry Potter books. Nor do I think Alice is on a crusade to fight evil (unless you consider bad manners and stupidity evil.) However, I do think they are alike in that everyone knows them. You can know about Harry Potter and Alice without having read either one. And both are probably going to be around for a long time to come.
The book has been great favorite of mine since I was small. I always wanted to go to Wonderland and, neither as an adult or as a child, saw the darkness so many others seem to see there. My image of Wonderland is neither as ominous as the one imagined by illustrator Barry Moser
(Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982) nor as sunny as Helen Oxenbury's recent Carnegie Medal winning edition (Candlewick Press, 1999.)
Some adults wonder if Alice is still accessible to children. I think it is
-- absolutely! Those who have visited Roxanne Feldman and my "Many Faces of Alice" Web site or read my article "Adventuring with Alice" in last winter's Riverbank Review will hopefully have come away with a sense of children truly knowing and loving the book.
So please, I invite you all to give us your own opinions, experiences, and thoughts about Alice. What do you like and don't you like about the book?
What were your experiences with it as an adult and child? Are some of you using it with children at home, in libraries, in schools? What do you think about the different illustrated editions? Is it heresy (as some think) to attempt to improve upon John Tenniel's illustrations for the first edition? (Or Carroll's for that matter?) How does Disney confound or support children's appreciation of the actual text? What about its place in the world of children's literature today? Or anything else!
Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Tue 03 Oct 2000 04:40:54 AM CDT
