Rating: Not Recommended

Reading Level: Mid-late Elementary

I don’t mind fantasy stories in wondrous lands (Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth is one of my favorites!) but I admittedly struggle with adventures that have unreasonable characters and no purpose. I didn’t enjoy George MacDonald’s Phantastes and for about the same reasons. I’ve read some of the symbolism but frankly it doesn’t redeem it much for me. It is a frustrating journey & I found it stressful as Alice gets into all sorts of awkward & dangerous pickles.

Possible concerns:

  • Poor attitudes and self-talk. I really despised Alice’s attitudes and self-talk. She is really harsh with herself & others. She is very sharp with herself and I don’t want my kids picking up on her attitudes.
  • Insults. When she questions who she is, she insults another little girl by suggesting she doesn’t know much.
  • Unwise decisions. Alice makes rash decisions to eat weird things & go strange places. If my children find odd foods sitting out that say “eat me” I’d want them to walk away if there is no trustworthy adult nearby to green light it.
  • Smoking. A caterpillar smokes a hooka
  • Peril. A queen runs around threatening to chop off heads

Something I liked:

  • Gentle mocking of our political system. A dodo bird makes a pun on a caucus “race” and tells everyone to run in a circle. When they all stop racing around, nobody knows who won. This was a clear mockery of political “dodo” leaders and the ridiculous, confusing nature of some political systems.

Other than that, I think I’d leave this one for the birds.