Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
For ages 10 and up
Unabridged audiobook (CD)
Performed/read by: Michael York
Blackstone Audio, Inc., 2008 ISBN: 978-1433213632
Alice is quietly sitting on the riverbank with her sister. Her sister is reading a book that Alice is sure must be a very dull book on account of the fact that the book has no pictures or conversations. Then Alice sees a white rabbit running past. This in itself is not all that odd. What is odd it that the rabbit is talking to itself. Alice has never seen a talking rabbit before.
Without stopping to think Alice sets off in hot pursuit and thus begins her extraordinary adventures. Alice soon finds herself falling down a terribly long rabbit hole and from that time onwards, as Alice says, "curiouser and curiouser" things keep happening to her. Alice finds herself in situations where she keeps changes sizes; she goes for a swim in her own tears; she attends the most peculiar tea party; and a queen threatens to cut off her head (among other things).
Despite the fact that the world has changed a great deal since this book was written in 1865, it is still has the power to entertain and delight those who read or listen to it. The poetry can still make people laugh, and the characters can still give an audience an otherworldly feeling which is deliciously odd.
Michael York puts his considerable acting skills to great use in his narrative, breathing life into all the characters and making the whole bizarre series of events seem as likely as the daily setting of the sun.
