Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

I began my inquiry with Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson writing under the pen name of Lewis Carroll, published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865. It is considered to be the original modern children's book by several scholars, including the writers of Literature and the Child, Galda, L., Cullinan, B.E. & Sipe, L.R. (2013). Currently, the Common Core State Standards suggest this novel as a piece of literature that "illustrates the complexity, quality, and range of student reading" for grade 4. I felt this was a good place to begin my inquiry as a future educator. 

Summary

A young girl, Alice is sitting outside with her sister when suddenly she sees a white rabbit. She is vaguely surprised by the fact that he is wearing clothing and follows him down his rabbit hole. Time seemingly stands still as she travels between her present world and the world of the rabbit (Wonderland). Once she arrives she meets a variety of curious and creative characters (Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts which we all know and love but also unknown characters such as the Dodo Bird and Mock Turtle) and participates in many unlikely and whimsical events.

Timelessness

Is this a piece of literature still suitable for young children despite it's original publication having been 148 years ago?

Edition published circa 1900

Yes and no...but mostly yes.

In the first chapter of Alice I was very confident in my ability to read the novel. The use of quotations and parenthesis helped to capture the action and explain important points. Lewis Carroll acknowledges his young readers in the very first paragraph of the book by writing.... 

"Once or twice she peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'"

Illustrations (to be explicated on later) and conversations make this book easier to read, especially in the case for younger readers. Furthermore, the dialogue, although more proper than current day dialogue is not too difficult to understand. What is more challenging about this novel are it's imaginative elements and metaphorical meanings. A few notes I have include...

~For myself, characters such as the Dodo bird, Mock Turtle, or Griffin would have been difficult to imagine if not for the illustrations, which strongly support the text. Perhaps to a young reader, the imaginative element is more accessible. Will this text be used as a read aloud or independent read? I can imagine it would require quite a bit of scaffolding.

~The whimsy of the included poems and songs, such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat, require prior knowledge, wit, and close reading for proper comprehension. In terms of Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat, most children are familiar with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But the other poems, which I am guessing were better known in the late 19th century, do not mean much to me as a reader because I am not aware of an original version they are playing off of.

~I believe that the "unknown" element that questions whether Alice's adventure is a dream or reality is not too advanced for the young reader, as it is an element found in other children's books and movies.

~Although, I do wonder if the theme of "loss of childhood innocence" and "growing up" might be too much for a 4th grade student in elementary school. Especially when the idea of growing up in Alice's world involves situations less similar to the present day world.

~In class I discussed this novel with my friend, who is attending school in the United States as an abroad student from Hong Kong. She is extremely intelligent in many areas, but she noted how difficult this book was to get through. As English is not her first language, she often takes 2x or 3x longer to read texts for our classes due to cultural references that she is less familiar with. She also said that the poems and songs were very hard to understand as well as a few other references from the book. Overall she enjoyed the book very much, but her positioning might give some insight as to whether or not this book is appropriate for someone who has limited background knowledge of the culture portrayed in the novel. Which, by the way is British, and thus as American readers, we find some customs such as "tea time" lacking the potential significance they should hold in a reader.

Alice over the years.....

Pictured are the four copies I own of this novel. For this project I used the bottom right hand edition. The edition in the top left corner does not have a typed publication date but has a handwritten christmas message dated in 1901. On the top right is my mother's childhood copy of Alice, given to her in the 1960's. One interesting thing I found was the list of "Other Book Suggestions for Girls" on the final page...as if this was a girl's book only. 

Finally, the bottom left copy was published in the late 1970s, a gift to my father for when he was working on his own Master's project in Art Education. He used the illustrations as models for his own artwork (to be posted here later). 

Text Features

Illustrations....

 Despite publications spanning over a century all four of these copies of Alice have the exact same original illustrations done by Sir John Tenniel. This images have become somewhat iconic in popular culture, for example, my favorite page....

Alice meets Cheshire Cat.

 Interestingly, some copies had black and white illustrations, and others had color.

From the 1970's Edition ( I apologize for the sideways view)

Dover Thrift Edition

Interesting Text Formats

Other Text features of note...

~The book, from the outside is fairly less daunting than once you begin reading. The copy I read from was not even a half inch thick, and only 86 pages, 12 chapters in total. The print is very small of course, but there is quite a bit of dialogue and thus white space. Illustrations, although not on every page appear about ever 3-4 pages on average. Illustrations range from full page to small ones.