Wonderland Revisited and the Games Alice Played There

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Lenny's description:
Are you disappointed that Carroll only wrote two 'Alice' books? Keith Sheppard's daughter was. So he decided to write a third adventure, in Lewis Carroll's familiar style.

During the night, Alice's bed mysteriously turns into a boat, and she drifts off to Wonderland once more. She meets many characters, some new, some familiar, but they all want to play games with her. However, the rules in Wonderland are somewhat different than Alice is used to...

Although it lacks the deeper layers from the original stories, Sheppard's tale is charming and contains several great puns and jokes in Carrolian style. Some are based on Carroll's ("If you don't know where you are trying to get to, how do you know you haven't arrived"), some are brand new ("A lost memory can be very hard to find, because you can never remember where you put it").

The book is illustrated by Cynthia Brownell. Personally I'm not very fond of her illustrations, but that may be a matter of taste.

I definitely recommend this book to everyone who is longing to read another simple, yet amusing story about Alice and a strange journey through the Wonderland of games.

Seller's description:
“Excuse me,” said Alice to a small grey Mouse in red shorts. “What precisely is a custard race?” -- Did Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass leave you yearning for more? Join Alice on a new journey and meet the extraordinary inhabitants of Wonderland, both familiar and new. If your bed turned into a boat, and you found yourself “drifting off” in an entirely unexpected manner, how would you find your way home? The Jack of Diamonds says it’s Alice’s own fault for being fast asleep -- had she slept more slowly, she wouldn’t be so far from home! The Red Queen, the Mah-jong Dragons, even the Red King’s Gamekeeper, all seem helpful enough at first -- but things never quite turn out the way Alice hopes! Brimming with word-play, nonsense verse, and a cast of eccentric characters each with a unique and peculiar logic, this tale is faithful to the style of the originals, picking up the pen where Lewis Carroll put it down. Be swept away on a torrent of humour and madness. Alice is back!

Product details:

Item number (ASIN): 1904808344
Author: Keith Sheppard
Creator: Michael Everson, Cynthia Brownell
ISBN: 1904808344
Manufacturer: Evertype
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 136
Package Dimensions: 39 x 543 x 843 (hundredths-inches)
Publication Date: November 1, 2009
Publisher: Evertype
Reading Level: All Ages
Binding: Paperback

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Average Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Welcome back, Alice
These days, children's books are big business. As a result, there are many authors who churn out formulaic volumes, once a year (in time for Christmas) which address their target demographic, but are otherwise totally devoid of literary value. As a grandparent, I find this regrettable. It wasn't always thus: to take Lewis Carrol as an example - his books were perfect bedtime stories for a small child, but contained a wealth of word-play, meta-mathematical in-jokes, and general cleverness to enchant the adult reader as well; just look at the references to the Russell Paradox in the White Night's song. Alas, Lewis Carroll produced only two books and he isn't in a position to write any more. In Mr Sheppard's introduction, he mentions that he wrote "Wonderland Revisited and the Games Alice Played There" in response to his children's request to hear more about Alice. Quite a challenge - Carroll's multi-level prose is amenable to pastiche, but to write an original work, in Carroll's style, accessible to its dual audiences of children and erudite adults, requires a very rare sort of talent. Fortunately, Keith seems to possess that talent. After reading the first few pages of the book, I felt that I was reading a recently-discovered work by the Rev. Dodgson himself. The story was, on the surface, a perfect bedtime story for the little ones, but replete with word play, allusions to gaming, maths and various other pursuits. I read the book in two sessions, on the train to and from New York. The only reason I put it down was the need to get off the train. Just one very minor observation - the book contains rather eccentric spellings of "can't", "won't", "shan't". I spent some time trying to figure out whether it was some kind of in-joke, but decided that it was some sort of editorial obsession. However, it turns out that I was wrong - the publisher has informed me that the alternative spellings were those used by Carroll himself. Far more logical than the accepted forms, now that I think about it. Strongly recommended. I look forward to the next adventure.