Review: Alice in Verse The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland by J.T. Holden

Have you ever wondered…

Who really stole the Queen’s tarts? What­ever did become of the Wal­rus & the Car­pen­ter after their nefar­i­ous jot down the briny beach with the lit­tle Oys­ters? Is there truly any sense to be found in non­sense at all?

Come fol­low Alice down the rabbit-​​hole once again as Lewis Carroll’s time­less clas­sic is reimag­ined through the lyri­cal lan­guage of Wonderland…where a Cater­pil­lar dis­penses an indeli­ble les­son, a Cat offers safe haven and  (fairly) sound advice, and a Hat­ter and Hare throw a mad tea party before match­ing wits at the trial of the century!

I don’t know how Derek from Can­dleshoe Books found out that I like all things Alice, but I’m so glad he did.  And I’m so glad he offered to send me this to read and review.  This lit­tle book, so unas­sum­ing from the cover, is filled with orig­i­nal and I must say beau­ti­fully writ­ten poems that fol­low up on some of Alice’s encoun­ters in Won­der­land.  The writ­ing is superb.  It flows freely and with pur­pose, lead­ing you back to Won­der­land and all the amaz­ing peo­ple and ani­mals first encoun­tered in Lewis Carroll’s clas­sic tales of Alice.

I won’t spoil it, but one of my favorite parts is the tale of The Wal­rus and The Car­pen­ter, and Holden wrapped up that story exquisitely.

The art­work is done by Andrew John­son and I love it!  Check out the Cheshire Cat, who I think it embod­ied per­fectly in a mis­chie­vous Siamese-​​like cat.  It reminds me a bit of the Amer­i­can McGee’s Alice video game char­ac­ters although that is much much darker.

And the tea party pic­tured here is so detailed and really brings to life the mad­ness of the Hat­ter and the March Hare.

For more art­work from the book, please click on either draw­ing to be taken to the gallery.  Here is a link to his deviantart site as well for more of his amaz­ing art­work that isn’t in the book.

I have to say I rec­om­mend this book for chil­dren and adults alike who have a love of Alice in Won­der­land.  The story is lovely and truly cap­tures the audi­ence, and I just couldn’t put it down till I’d devoured every last line.  And then I read it again!  It’s really that good.

I would love to offer a give­away of the book, but this one is going on my keeper shelf next to my favorite copy of both Alice in Won­der­land and Through the Look­ing Glass.  It def­i­nitely belongs in good company.

But! Aren’t you glad there’s a but? Here is what I am giv­ing away to four lucky readers:

This gor­geous book­mark (pic­ture is on the front, word­ing is on the back.)  Derek from Can­dleshoe books sent along some extras, so I’m going to give them to the first four peo­ple to leave a com­ment here.