ALICE IN WONDERLAND,
By Lewis Carroll
Read by Camel’s Hump Radio host Philip Baruth

On a sultry summer day in England, with the river bearing them down the stream in a little boat, Alice Liddell and her 2 sisters heard the first installment of a story made up by their friend “Lewis Carroll,” the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. In it, Alice finds herself chasing after a white rabbit--THE White Rabbit, of course--and then falling down the rabbit’s hole into Wonderland. The is a story that once heard is never forgotten and it bears little resemblance to the cartoon version.

THINGS TO DO ONLINE

Tried-and-true games

Lewis Carroll was a puzzle nut. Here are some games that have definitely been around long enough so that Lewis and Alice Liddell might have played them.

Complete nonsense

Basil S. Fibbly tells tall tales and you’re invited to use your words and his nutty brain to make up one yourself. Lewis Carroll loved what he called “portmanteau” or “suitcase” words, where you bundle several words together to make a new word that combines the original meanings—fog + smoke=smog, for example. Here’s a site where you can see if you can figure out the origin of another kid’s “Wonky Word” or try your hand at making one.

MORE THINGS TO DO

Illustrate Alice
From the White Rabbit to the Red Queen to the Playing Cards to the Mad Hatter, the cast of characters in Alice begs to be drawn. Maybe you have a picture of how Alice really looked--and it isn’t that pale and serious girl with the hairband. If you can get access to a scanner, have your illustration, with a caption, scanned into the computer and then send it to us at Contact Us for our Camel’s Hump Gallery.

A cake and a drink
Now to Camel’s Hump Cooks for a little cake and a cooling drink, which may or may not make you grow or shrink.

Note: The "Things to do" sections can often use an adult's help or encouragement.


FROM THE CHR LIBRARIAN

Lewis Carroll and his children’s stories

The books and poems told and written down for his child friends by “Lewis Carroll” are, besides Alice’s Adventures Underground—as it was originally called, Alice Through the Looking-Glass and The Hunting of the Snark , available here in a beautiful online version. All are laced with nonsense. Carroll, of course, had taken up the challenge that adults used to face quite often before there were TVs and VCRs and DVD players: “Tell me a story.” That his have lasted so long is partly because they were written down. But the stories family and family friends tell are lasting, too, in the hearts and minds of those who heard them. So, whether you are good at story of imagination or stories of ‘how things were,’ never fear that they will fall on deaf ears. Obey Alice’s declarative: “Begin it.”

The real Alice

Most people have been trained by the John Tenniel illustrations to see “Alice” in their mind’s eye as a slim blonde with a headband holding back her long hair. Nothing, as they say, could be further from the truth. Here is the real Alice—.

Puzzles and Riddles

Lewis Carroll was a mathematician and enjoyed devising puzzles and riddles. Here are some puzzles and some riddles, not entirely beyond us modern folk. Carroll practically invented the mathematical discipline called Symbolic Logic. Try your hand at some of these puzzles. The site shows you how to play the game. Meanwhile, for kids with adventurous minds and obliging parents, there’s The Snark Puzzle Book by Martin Gardner, based, of course, on The Hunting of the Snark.

And finally, Dodgson was a logician and here’s his definition
"Contrariwise", said Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be, but as it isn't, it ain’t. That's logic."