Reviews

K-Gr 6-In a note, Foreman explains that he has based his artwork for this classic on photographs taken by Carroll of the "real Alice" (Alice Liddell), some of which are reproduced in this book. The illustrator points out how, with her "mischievous little face," she "seems as much a child of the 1960s or the twenty-first century as the 1860s." With her short gray-black hair, turned-up nose, and simple striped dress, his Alice makes an almost comfortingly drab counterbalance to the otherwise colorful characters and bright backdrops that fill the tale. Ranging from small vignettes to the occasional two-page painting, the watercolors shimmer with seaside shades of blue, green, and yellow. The pictures are packed with movement, whimsy, and humor, and are perfectly placed to match the pace of the action. Scenes depicting the time before and after Alice's descent into the rabbit hole are done in brown and white, neatly delineating the beginning and end of her adventure. This version makes a solid choice for those libraries looking to spiff up their Alice collections with a splash of color.-Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishing a newly illustrated edition of a children's classic is a risky undertaking: Is there really a need, for example, for another excursion down the rabbit hole with Alice? However, when the work is graced with Weevers's elegant watercolors, the answer is a resounding yes. Encountering the sublime cover painting, the reader senses instantly that here is no commonplace Alice : only slightly bedraggled, the plucky heroine paddles valiantly through the pool of tears, with stately birds and a solitary mouse in tow. In this volume Weevers ( The Hare and the Tortoise , Herbert Binns and the Flying Tricycle ) has produced his most sophisticated and lavishly detailed paintings to date. A magnificently liveried, haughty lobster sneers as he grooms fastidiously; a dolorous King of Hearts and his indignant consort preside at a tasty trial, heedless of the courtroom banner proclaiming Amor vincit omnia --love will certainly not conquer this pair. Rendered in a traditional style, unlike the surrealistic approach chosen by Anthony Browne in his recent edition of Alice , these illustrations are set amidst a treasure trove of Victoriana: Alice plummets past a dusty bell jar surrounded by crumbling leatherbound volumes, the Duchess perches on a Chinese oriental carpet beside a tufted leather footstool. This is an Alice to revisit again and again. Ages 8-up. (Oct.)