In this 150th Anniversary year of Lewis Caroll's classic story, there are a dizzying array of different versions of the story currently available. Let's take a look at one of the nicest we've seen in a long time...

After enjoying the recent "Alice Weekend" here in Oxford, I have been on the lookout for a 'toddler' version of Lewis Carroll's classic children's book for quite some time. We finally spotted one and though it features some absolutely beautiful illustrations by Mauro Evangelista, the abridged text is far too choppy and disjointed to really give a flavour of the original book. 

Carroll's nonsensical tale gets butchered, to put it plainly - to the point where even a forgiving child's imagination struggles to fill in the gaps. It's not an enviable task to take a well loved (and lengthy) work and make it appeal to a younger audience. I guess I'll just have to wait until I can show Charlotte the 'proper' version instead. A pity. 


Daddy's favourite bit: Evangelista's artwork is sublime but can't save the book from being a bit of a mess otherwise

Rating: 1 out of 5