Through the Looking-Glass
Lewis Carroll
1871
MacMillan
pp. 130
The book is the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I had read that as a child, first the abridged version and then the unabridged versions when I was older. As a child, I used to find the story quite fascinating and the illustrations in books and subsequently various animated short and long films were engaging. I discovered some time ago that the book had been banned in many countries. The fascination of the story line and the idea of seemingly innocent children’s books being banned led me to pick up this one.
The story is quite simple and you can only enjoy it if you accept being perfectly illogical. Some of the portions are quite funny. I loved how Alice interacts with Humpty Dumpty. The most intriguing bit is to have a child to have imagination. And just for promoting this creativity, the ability to defy logic, and letting a child’s imagination fly, I love this work.
This book, like its prequel, is recommended for parents and teachers to read out or along with young readers to encourage them to think of a world with infinite possibilities. Imagination, after all, is what will lead to creations, that build a better world.