The Secret Garden (Bath Treasury of Children's Classics) (Bath Classics)

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There are so many great things to say about this story. For me, as a work of fantasy, it is on par with The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz in terms of its creative imagination. Op een slaapverwekkende warme zomerdag zit Alice zich naast haar lezende zus aan de waterkant onnoemelijk te vervelen. Een vestimentair piekfijn uitgedost wit Konijn dat gehaast voorbijsnelt, prikkelt haar nieuwsgierigheid. Ze gaat het achterna en tuimelt zo via een schier eindeloze konijnenpijp onverhoeds in Wonderland, een magische wereld bevolkt met sprekende dieren. Naast het voeren van absurde conversaties met de vreemdsoortige wezens, heeft ze plots haar handen vol met een baby die eigenlijk een big blijkt te zijn. Bovendien krimpt of groeit Alice de hele tijd door in een halsbrekend tempo als ze aan koekjes of paddenstoelen knabbelt! It would be reasonable," said the Hatter, "to expect hot premarital sex in a Stephenie Meyer novel. But don't imagine you'll find any." But I do love the original animated Disney adaptation. There’s a certain quality to the book that’s captured within that film, which I haven’t found recreated in any other retelling or use of the setting or adaptation.

it's actually day 8. i'm terribly slumped - the kind where it literally never occurs to you to read and then when it does you're like...am i physically capable of doing this? how did i ever make these words enter my head? well, it's actually day 14, so i might as well mess around and finish this book already. i wanted to relish it but my dumb suddenly-illiterate brain refuses to allow me to! The intro to the book mentioned this being psychedelic fiction. Having grown up frequently seeing art with tie-dyed mushrooms and a hookah smoking caterpillar on top, I was already thinking this book was likely quite a trip. The surreal storylines, bizarre characters, and the consumption of substances by Alice to alter her reality definitely make this a trippy experience. Reading this book for the first time as an adult leaves me bewildered, vaguely amused and mostly lost. I'm now worrying whether I'm too old for children's stories anymore (I briefly reread some of my faves - HP, Winnie the Pooh and Charlotte's Web - and have concluded it's not me, just that book).

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Well, also Through the Looking Glass. But THAT’S PRACTICALLY THE SECOND HALF OF THE SAME BOOK. (And other examples of my inability to make decisions or commit in any way to anything.) A la hora de dar mi opinión sobre Alicia no estaba seguro por donde empezar. Prácticamente se ha dicho todo y no sé que más puedo aportar. Pero además, a este hecho, se suma que siento que es un libro que tiene mucho escondido en el fondo, donde no se pueda ver bien y eso consigue que cada lector entienda la obra de una manera. Quizás un mismo lector la entendería de diferente manera si la releyera. this one is a ton of fun but impossible to compete in a universe that contains the walrus and the carpenter.

In spite of being written for children – originally, a young girl named Alice – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland influenced the entire grownup literature. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I – I hardly know, sir, just at present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

Little Alice is a bored girl laying in the prairie when she suddenly notices a curious White Rabbit complaining about getting late to his appointment. Following it she stumbles upon a rabbit hole, and when she enters it plummets in freefall until landing in a whole new world. This is the story of her adventures in Wonderland, a place where nothing makes sense, and everything crazy will take place.

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that! also: "Alice did not much like keeping so close to her: first, because the Duchess was very ugly." vibes. Of all the fantasy worlds that work around this idea, this is by far the most bizarre I have read about. To put in mildly, the things Alice encounters feel hallucinogenic as if the mind has conjured them up whilst being intoxicated. Because as strange as it all seems, there is always a touch of the real about them. And I think this is because Lewis Carroll draws on real life experiences to bring his world to life. Today, reading a friend’s review on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, I searched the garden shed for an edition of Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger which I read ages ago, to have another look at Zwerger’s marvellous illustrations. Sadly enough it has disappeared – I must have lent out my copy to a friend. So, heading for a revisit in the near future hoping for the book to return, in the meantime I cannot resist sharing some of Lisbeth Zwerger’s illustrations which I add to the book appetizer I wrote because a friend asked me so long ago. The ending to this novel slowly ripped my hearts to pieces. When I listened to emotional scenes on audiobooks I become a blubbering mess. I definitely became a mess, but I also felt hopeful about where Anne’s life could go. There is no question that I’m going to continue on with this series. Mainly because I NEED to know how Anne and Gilbert get together. They are just so cute and I love them. I have since bought a box set of this series on my Kindle and will be rereading Anne of Green Gables this year because I LOVE it and want to feel happy innocent joy again.

I don't enjoy nonsense. I like things to be logical and follow some kind of structure... I guess that's the scientist in me. Of course, not everything can be logical in horror books etc, but this was like a different level of ridiculousness. Nothing made any sense, things were all over the place. We were just jumping around everywhere and I just wanted the experience to be over. If this book wasn't so short, I think it would have became a DNF for me. These things interested the adult reader in me, but Alice is really for children of all ages. Thanks to the animated movie, I knew the characters and I felt like I was being reunited with old friends. I especially felt this during the Mad Tea Party, which I think must rank among the most brilliant comic scenes in English literature. However, Alice proves that books for children need not be dumbed down or sentimentalized. There are some dark undercurrents to the excellent humor (The Queen is obsessed with beheading, to use just the most famous example). And the beautiful concluding paragraph is a startling, Shakespearean meditation on childhood, age, and eventual womanhood. I admit that was a wonderful surprise. And then of course there's the drug use of the caterpillar and Carroll's suggested pedophiliac obsession with young girls. But people who approach Alice as psychedelic literature or a creepy Lolita story, I think, miss the point. However, these questions do add to the depth of the reading experience. They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the bank – the birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their fur clinging close to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and uncomfortable. Alicia es un personaje único, tanto como cualquiera de los que conocemos durante su viaje; el impuntual Conejo Blanco, la copada Oruga, la hermosa Duquesa, el Sonriente Gato de Cheshire, el racional Sombrerero, la imperturbable Liebre de Marzo, y la adorable Reina de Corazones, entre otros. Escuchar el audiolibro a través de la impecable voz de Scarlett Johansson fue un gran deleite, aunque tal vez acompañarlo con un libro de dibujos podría haber hecho maravillas. Una oportunidad perdida. In THE FOX AND THE CROW a spectacular tree stands in full view with the fox at bottom and the crow at the very top! When the fox compliments the crow and says I bet your voice is preetier then the other birds, the crow agrees and lets out a caw, caw sound and the fox gobbles up the cheese that the crow had in it's beak! The fox said, "You do have a beautiful voice but you don't seem to have a brain!"