through the looking glass and what alice found there book

‘Oh, you wicked little thing!’ cried Alice, catching up the kitten, and giving it a little kiss to make it understand that it was in disgrace. The way Dinah washed her children’s faces was this: first she held the poor thing down by its ear with one paw, and then with the other paw she rubbed its face all over, the wrong way, beginning at the nose: and just now, as I said, she was hard at work on the white kitten, which was lying quite still and trying to purr–no doubt feeling that it was all meant for its good.īut the black kitten had been finished with earlier in the afternoon, and so, while Alice was sitting curled up in a corner of the great arm-chair, half talking to herself and half asleep, the kitten had been having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again and there it was, spread over the hearth-rug, all knots and tangles, with the kitten running after its own tail in the middle. For the white kitten had been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter of an hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering) so you see that it COULDN’T have had any hand in the mischief. One thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do with it:–it was the black kitten’s fault entirely. I highly recommend both of Lewis Carroll’s stories about Alice as family read-aloud options – there’s no better way to experience them.Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll

He refrains from preaching or infantilizing, and an authentic sense of child-like wonder at the world pervades the book. He gives credence to what seems silly and absurd, and offers the puns, riddles, jokes, and even nonsense that children love and adults tend to groan about. What Carroll does so well is lift up and glorify the witty and imaginative ways that children think about words and logic as they grow and learn. The book contains both Jabberwocky, a poem stuffed with old-fashioned words that Alice needs help from others to decipher, and The Walrus and the Carpenter, a lovely poem with both sad and silly moments that has stuck with me as a favorite since my childhood. The reason I so love Through the Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There is its excellent poetry.

For child and adult readers alike, this is about as much fun as literature can be. She fearlessly explores, makes friends, and learns, taking the twists and turns of logic and magic that constantly alter the reality around her in stride. In her dreams, she enters magical worlds populated by smart and witty animals and everyday objects. For me, this second installment about Alice is even more wonderful than the first ( Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), and that isn’t an easy feat! Both books feature Alice, a 7-year-old girl with a wildly vivid imagination.

Through the looking glass and what alice found there book