About the Author

English writer and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), who wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, was especially known for his children's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Donada Peters is one of AudioFile magazine's Golden Voices and has won over a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards.

Reviews

Classics Illustrated comics returns with this dismal adaptation of Carroll's second Alice tale. Most of the charming paradoxes and silly puns are salvaged in gs the text, arranged in columns beneath the artwork rather than in word balloons. Consequently, a lot of very small illustrations are needed to carry the dialogue between Alice and the many looking-glass characters--to the detriment of the visual appeal of the work. g Baker ( Why I Hate Saturn ) is a good caricaturist, but the drawings often appear perfunctory and the color choicesg flat, garish and awkward. At its best (the Humpty Dumpty scenes), the g sketchy linework seems more appropriate to a realistic narrative, a thriller or a political satire, and the g book lacks throughout the careful design and rendering that a children's classic requires. (Feb.)

Gr 5 Up-This is an admirable attempt at adapting a classic into a graphic novel, but it works better as a supplemental or introductory piece. Baker tries to remain true to the original work by leaving the dialogue mainly intact, though the transitional writing that he removes tends to cause confusion, especially in Carroll's world of fancy, imagination, and nonsense. Baker also has made a stylistic choice to eschew word bubbles; dialogue is instead placed under panels and directly under images of characters to which they belong. This takes some getting used to, even for seasoned graphic-novel readers. Baker's loose art style reflects the mood of this world, and his characters are drawn with great expression. However, small panel size and crowded layouts detract from appreciation of the art and comprehension of the story. A note at the end directs readers to borrow the original work from their school or public library, which is a valid suggestion in order to understand and appreciate Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass fully.-Kim T. Ha, Elkridge Branch Library, MD Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information