Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Since it was first published in 1865, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has become one of the most beloved children's books ever written. Noted for its fantastic plot and brilliant use of nonsense, the book can be read on many levels and appeals as much to adults as to children. The incredible creatures who inhabit Wonderland have attracted hundreds of illustrators, each of whom has interpreted Carroll's work in a different way. Now, Michael Hague has created his own unique versions of the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Chesire Cat, and all the other strange creatures who fill Alice's world Grade 3 Up Hague, in his "Afterword," gives a fine reason for tackling a book that has already been illustrated some 100 times: to "reinterpret the classics for each new generation of children." But what does Hague bring to Alice that is fresh or contemporary in insight? Only a set of crowded images that seem too often to be seen through a dirty yellow filter. There's no denying the competency of his drawing. He does his anatomy homework, and his mock-Rackham trees are properly gnarled, but they lack the brooding mystery of the master's originals. The Queen is a fresh face with a red fright wig and jutting lower lip, almost a Dom DeLuise in drag. But Alice, although a real girl, looks too old for the part at times. Individually, Hague produces attractive characters that hover quite close to the descriptions Carroll provides or Dame Nature offers. Once again the trouble comes in the organization of these characters and architectural sets; they too frequently don't seem to fit. A heavy-handed use of black outline is one reason figures are isolated in space. Sometimes it's an odd juxtaposition of colors. And why does he put human hands on some of his animals and not on others? Although these odd bits of artistic shortcomings are in evidence, they do not override an attraction to aspects of Hague's illustrations, which will have broad appeal. Yet despite his expressed hope that children "will want to read this wonderful story" because of his pictures, it is more likely that they'll want to read it because of the profound imagination of the author and his ability to spin a yarn as pertinent today as it was 100 years ago. Kenneth Marantz,u Art Education Department, Ohio State Univ . , Columbus Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.