In terms of the books themselves, the first one was very odd and it was difficult to keep up with all the strange characters. I think that the best character in the first book is the Cheshire Cat. I liked him the most because of his attitude and evaporating skills.
In the second book the plot is a game of chess and Alice's quest to be a queen by crossing to the other side of the board. I think everyone knows enough about chess to follow this book, plus at the start of the book it says that all the moves correspond and stay within the rules of the game.
I think I give the first book 47 out of 100 and the second book 62 out of 100. This gives a mean score of 54.5 (My mum made me do the maths)
Jay writes - I always struggle with Alice books. The dreamlike surrealism and the nonsense gets on my nerves. I much prefer the poems within the books to the stories, and I am glad Luke could find things to enjoy in these classics that mostly don't appeal to me.
Luke, you might like the "Annotated Alice" by Martin Gardner. All kinds of bits and pieces in the footnotes - like why some of "Alice" is like quantum physics, or Jabberwocky translated into ancient Greek.
ReplyDeleteAnd Jay - sorry, you are so completely WRONG on this one. Alice rules!