Alice

I AM fond of that cat....

And the moral of the story is, "don't judge a book by its mother."

Wot yew goin' bug eyed for bunny?

Alice had a father, no mother.....unless you count little Alice Liddell...

I think even aka could teach you a thing or two about reproduction bunny.

But that's not what I was talking about, was just aping the Dutchess' innane morals.

Bunnies know how to reproduce, I believe.

God, how I hated the Duchess' illustrations - and her behaviour - damned book still makes me shiver - I am cowering under the bedclothes again trying not to hear it being read, speaking of mothers, lol!

Damn the mockturtle! That is one of the most boring chapters I've read. Cheesy puns aren't half bad, but cheesy, obscure and archaic puns?

Dreary reading.

IMHO that was one of the best chapters in the book.

Aiyee! The Mockturtle chapter is indeed dreary - would unfailingly cause me bouts of absolute misery when I saw it! Shiver...

But that's the lobster quadrille, isn't it? I love the lobster quadrille!

Would you walk a little faster
Said the whiting to the snail
There's a porpoise close behind us
And he's treading on my tail
See how easily the (lobsters?) and the (turtles?) all advance!
They're waiting on the shingles
Won't you come and join the dance...

Will ya, won't ya
Will ya, won't ya
Won't ya join the daaance?

(Admission -- had an album as a kid called "The Simon Sisters Sing for Children" with Carly Simon and her sister Lucy, they set it to music and it's a GREAT tune.)

I think that is in the Walrus and the Carpenter chapter.....

Yep. An' I hated it with a passion. I've barely read any of the book since that silly dance started.

It's silly! Very very silly! Big hit with a 7-year-old girl silly!

And you really have no notion
How delightful it can be
When they take us up and throw us
With the lobsters out to sea!

Yeah, there was a tangent I went on about puns.

It was in the notes, seems some people think puns lower teh quality of kids books. But that might just be an adult talking.

I remembered liking puns more as a child than I do now. When I read it it was just one groaner after another.

Another things was that the characters in that chapter were just too weird.

I don't know if I can say they weren't believable when I enjoyed the card people but that's exactly what I mean.

It smacked of the really primitive mythology where they just put a bunch of animal parts together. It was a bit too lame to catch my imagination.

The illustrations made it worse.

Yeah, I was a big fan of puns when I was a kid. I still like the good ones, but had no discernment then. Had a very punny elementary school teacher, I recently found a note from him that I remember thinking was the height of sophisticated wit at the time. Lots o' groaners.

I figured out what Mock Turtle was about only much later, (mock turtle soup is actually made of beef or whatever), I just thought the Mock Turtle was funny. The weeping. (Geez, I was a morbid kid, wasn't I?) Reminds me of Douglas Adams sorta, both Marvin and the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Ewwwwww - that poor calf's head on the turtle body!!!!! And soooooooo lugubrious - I always felt that the Victorians must be very unhappy people after that...

There's a (feminist) sociology book based on the red queen's character - always running, having to go ahead and work harder to keep up. I read the books in two nights, they aren't very long. People quote them so much and find so much symbolism in them you just have to read them.

Next up on the children's books I have to read list: The Phantom Tollbooth.

That is a fun book! Tried "The Land of green Ginger"?

Nope, but it sounds good. I'll add that one too. Thanks!