When Frank Beddor first came out with his revisionist look at Alice in Wonderland (The Looking Glass Wars) he lit a bit of a firestorm by suggesting that Alice was a "girl book". Lost of folks pounced on him for that one big time because really is there anything worse than declaring a classic is good for only one gender? (Other than declaring it utter garbage of course.)

I liked The Looking Glass Wars and was intrigued by what Beddor said about Alice both in his interviews and the way in which he wrote his book (and its sequel, Seeing Redd). I've never been a huge fan of the classic the way many other folks are - parts of the book strike me as a bit dull and on more than one occasion I find Alice to be quite exasperating. Haven't said that though, I am however a big fan of Lewis Carroll. Whether or not I love his books I can't help but be impressed by what he wrote. He made up a world that defies common convention and is so many different things (absurd, political, satirical, violent, silly, analytical and fantastic) that from a writer's perspective you can't help but be in awe of his amazing imagination. As a reader I have my favorite bits and overall Through the Looking Glass always seemed the better book to me (it's the whole chess game that I like most of all) but is Alice a girl book? And should that matter? I don't know, although I would agree that Disney made Alice a girl movie (the only thing he seemed to know to do with a story that had a female protagonist). For most American kids of a certain age I think it is the movie that stands out more in their minds than the book and that might be why they see Carroll's work the way they do and why boys dismiss it to a certain degree (John Lennon's deep affection for it notwithstanding.)

Setting all of that aside, I read both of the original books with the John Tenniel illustrations to my seven year old son earlier this year and he enjoyed them a great deal (Looking Glass was the fav). If you are trying to entice an older child or young teen into Alice's world then Beddor's book are a decent place to start if they resist the originals. (But not the younger kids - these books are much much more violent than Carroll's.) (You don't even want to know what the Cheshire Cat does for fun.) For the originals you should look for one with Tenniel's illustrations although I must admit this cover from a British version is extremely appealing.

I have a copy of Abelardo Morrell's edition of the book which incorporates Tenniel's illustrations into various photographs. From a review at site: "Abelardo Morell had the happy thought of combining cutouts of Tenniel's drawings with ingenious photographs that comment cleverly on the text. His picture of a rabbit hole going down through the middle of a huge dictionary was sheer inspiration. Lewis Carroll, pioneer photographer, would have been delighted and amused."

This is probably one of my favorite books, period. It's a perfect marriage of writer and illustrator and really really cool. (And something I no doubt Carroll would have appreciated.)

Jesse reviewed the Hatter M graphic novel from Frank Beddor last month at Guys Lit Wire and again, for older readers, this one sounds like an interesting take on the Alice story. (Largely minus Alice however as it deals with the Beddor version of the Mad Hatter searching for her after she left Wonderland and ended up unceremoniously dumped in England.)

One of the best novels I read about Carroll was Katie Roiphe's Still She Haunts Me. This intimate look at Charles Dodgson and the Liddell family is riveting both for what it suggests and what it reveals. As so much of the truth about Dodgson and Alice is lost forever it is only through novels that readers can explore just what the nature of their friendship truly was. Here's a bit of the Independent's review of the book:

Roiphe captures the cruelty of Dodgson's inability to articulate what Alice had become to him, in a powerfully-evoked society that bristles with unspoken emotions. You can almost feel the sweat dripping beneath the girl's crinolines on the river bank, the stultifying torpor of tea parties and college dinners. She handles a disturbing story with great subtlety and penetrating insight.

Powerful stuff indeed.

And finally there is the visually stunning Alice in Sunderland from Bryan Talbot. This look not only at Alice but Dodgson and beyond both of them the world he came from and a healthy dose of British history to boot is one of the most amazing books (graphic novel or otherwise) that I have come across in a long long time. Gorgeous, just gorgeous and what an achievement to have created this! From my post earlier this year:

I don't think I've ever read such a well told general history of a place before this book. It's not indepth but it's not supposed to be - it's supposed to show you just how many times the area around Sunderland changed hands and the many different kinds of people who have been involved in the development of England as we know it today. It's a visual history in the same vein that The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam is a visual biography. (And in the same way that Barbara Hodgson writes what are termed illustrated travel histories and illustrated novels.) I think that Talbot is pushing the boundaries of graphic novel with this book - I'd even go so far as to say it isn't a graphic novel. To me a graphic novel is a novel told in comic book format, but still a novel first and foremost. That's not what Alice in Sunderland is and by shelving it with graphic novels it is likely losing some of its reading audience - most certainly fans of Alice in Wonderland but also those interested in literary history, history of England and creative uses of visual storytelling. (Fans of Dan Eldon and Peter Beard should take note of this one for sure.)

As to the Alice fan who has everything (or seems to) there are also Alice dishes from Fish's Eddy (a store that has provided my house with many indestructible plates and bowls over the years) or you could make a Wonderland Expedition kit for them - which pretty much seems like one of the coolest literary presents ever. (link via boing boing, of course.)

[Post pic from Abelardo Morrell's version of Alice - this one is entitled "The Cheshire Cat". Bottom pic of the Wonderland Expedition kit.]