Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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Publisher's Trade ©2003--
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Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Just the Series: Classic Collectible Pop-Up   

Series and Publisher: Classic Collectible Pop-Up   

Annotation: Faithful to Lewis Carroll's original story, and special effects like a Victorian peep show, multifaceted foil, and tactile elements make this a pop-up to read and admire again and again.
Genre: [Classics]
 
Reviews: 6
Catalog Number: #3088704
Format: Publisher's Trade
Copyright Date: 2003
Edition Date: 2003 Release Date: 10/01/03
Pages: 1 volume (unpaged)
ISBN: 0-689-84743-2
ISBN 13: 978-0-689-84743-1
Dewey: Fic
LCCN: 2004272569
Dimensions: 27 cm.
Language: English
Reviews:
Starred Review for Publishers Weekly (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Readers will be astonished by every tableau in this pop-up extravaganza. The initial spread explodes into a surprisingly tall green forest, topped by billowing leafy shapes that resemble the Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts. On the lawn below, in papery 3D, Alice scurries about while the White Rabbit checks his pocket watch. Along the left-hand border of the book, a series of narrow flaps present an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's text. These pages-within-pages feature pop-ups of a green bottle ("Drink me") that shrinks Alice, a cake that makes her a giant and Alice swimming in "the pool of tears that she had wept when she was nine feet high." Finally, an accordion-pleated square in the lower right corner expands into a long, vertical rabbit hole; through its circular window, Alice can be seen falling, as if into a well. And that's only the beginning. Subsequent stages of this moveable feast include a wiggly Alice grown too large for the White Rabbit's house; a Mad Tea Party with shining silver-foil tea service (the March Hare and Mad Hatter dunk the Dormouse in a teapot); and Alice waving her arms as the Queen and her court, transformed to a "pack of cards," arch over her head like a rainbow. Those who know the story can best negotiate this wonderland, for the narrative gets a bit lost in the visual dimensions. Sabuda, who also has adapted <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, borrows from the Tenniel illustrations, but pares them down and drenches them with violet, fuschia, gold and green hues. His paper engineering snaps solidly into place, and elements like the Cheshire Cat's unfolding face are both startling and beautiful; and the pack of cards rising up into the air will have the audience studying how Sabuda created the effect of scattering and tumbling. A Jabberwocky cheer of "O frabjous day! Calloo, callay!" seems appropriate for this salute to Carroll's classic. All ages. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2004)

Sabuda creates on each of six spreads an iconic tableau from Carroll's classic tale. Small booklets to the side of the main image contain the text (necessarily abridged: the story moves at an over-fast pace but still coheres) along with some pop-up surprises of their own. Devotees of the original art will applaud Sabuda's adoption of Tenniel's style. This achievement in paper engineering will leave readers with an into-the-rabbit-hole sense of astonishment.

Kirkus Reviews

<p>Girl falls down a rabbit hole, cries buckets, has a spot of bother about size, plays some croquet, and wakes up in time for tea. The quintessential Victorian children's classic, Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been gloriously re-envisioned by pop-up master Sabuda. The bizarre settings and rude creatures of Wonderland burst out with every turn of the page, starting with an ingenious peep-show rabbit hole and ending with an explosion of cards. She's a familiar Alice; Sabuda, while paying homage to original illustrator Sir John Tenniel, uses vibrant colors, thick black outlines, and foil to create a work that is uniquely his. The text is abridged with most of the nonsense poetry left out; perhaps this engaging version will send a few new fans to the original. Carroll, no slouch in the paper-engineering department himself (he designed a disappearing Cheshire Cat stamp case), would be pleased. (Picture book. All ages)</p>

School Library Journal

K-Gr 6-Sabuda brings Alice's world to life with breathtaking, three-dimensional images that are incredibly imaginative, intricately detailed, and perfectly executed. Carroll's text has been significantly abridged, and although some scenes are a bit choppy, the quickly paced narrative retains the flavor of the original. Sabuda's illustrations pay homage to John Tenniel's artwork, while providing a fresh look at the story and offering details that add greatly to the reading experience. The events unfold in six glorious spreads, each featuring a large pop-up and a narrow booklet that opens into several pages containing the text as well as additional pop-ups. The first scene depicts Alice and her sister on the riverbank, and the faces of several Wonderland characters are camouflaged among the background trees. A pull-up panel provides a "Victorian peep show" view of Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Throughout, shiny foils highlight items such as pots and pans, and felt adds textured detail to the Cheshire Cat and other fuzzy animals. A movable inset transforms the face of the Duchess's offspring from a baby's to a pig's. As a page is turned, a gardener raises his paintbrush and a piece of cellophane changes a white rose to red. In the final spread, a frightened Alice waves her arms beneath a delicate arch of cards. In addition to pulling off feats of paper engineering, the artist also manages to create compositions that provide an eye-pleasing balance of colors, shapes, and action. Much too delicate to circulate, libraries may still want to purchase this book for displays and just for showing off.-Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 CST 2003)

Starred Review Sabuda, creator of a previous pop-up adaptation of a classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (2000), cleaves closely to the original; his full-color artwork is in John Tenniel's classic style, and the abridged text, cleverly tucked into minibooks on each spread, is fairly comprehensive. This faithfulness preserves the contrast between the drawing-room politeness of Tenniel's illustrations and the lunacy of Carroll's imaginings. The pops don't pop so much as gracefully unfurl--and then collapse upon themselves with jaw-dropping ease that leaves one flipping the pages back and forth in amazement. Few readers will peep through the expandable tube that simulates Alice's tumble down the rabbit hole, or admire the closing spread's intricately die-cut, gravity-defying arc of playing cards, without feeling a bit bereft when the adventure comes to an end. This will very likely come to be seen as the definitive pop-up version of Alice, but it will also further establish Sabuda as the foremost visionary of the genre.

Reviewing Agencies: - Find Other Reviewed Titles
Starred Review for Publishers Weekly (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)
Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2004)
Kirkus Reviews
Wilson's Children's Catalog
School Library Journal
Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 CST 2003)
Word Count: 26,435
Reading Level: 7.4
Interest Level: P-2
Accelerated Reader: reading level: 7.4 / points: 5.0 / quiz: 52290 / grade: Middle Grades
Reading Counts!: reading level:6.1 / points:12.0 / quiz:Q00202
Lexile: 890L
I
 
Down the Rabbit Hole
 
 
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
So he was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” (When she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but, when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled “ORANGE MARMALADE,” but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.
“Well!” thought Alice to herself. “After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down-stairs! How brave they’ll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn’t say anything about it, even I fell off the top of the house!” (Which was very likely true)
Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? “I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think—”(for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the school-room, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) “—yes, that’s about the right distance—but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got to?” (Alice had not the slightest idea what Latitude was or Longitude either, but she thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. “I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The antipathies, I think—” (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didn’t sound at all the right word) “—but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please Ma’m, is this New Zealand? Or Australia?” (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke—fancy, curtseying as you’re falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) “And what an ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do to ask: Perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.”
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. “Dinah’ll miss me very much to-night, I should think!” (Dinah was the cat.) “I hope they’ll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah, my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I’m afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that’s very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?” And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, “Do bats eat cats?” for, you see, as she couldn’t answer either question, it didn’t much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and was saying to her, very earnestly, “Now, Dinah , tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?” when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and fall was over.
Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, “Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!” She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.
There were doors all around the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.
Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice’s first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!
Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than the rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head through the doorway; “and even if my head would go through,” thought poor Alice, “it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.” For, you see, so many out-of-the-way thinks had happened lately that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.
There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it (“which certainly was not here before,” said Alice), and tied around the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words “DRINK ME” beautifully printed on it in large letters
It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. “No, I’ll look first,” she said, “and see whether it’s marked ‘poison’ or not” for she had read several nice little stories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that, if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked “poison,” it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.
However, this bottle was not marked “poison,” so Alice ventures to taste it, and finding it very nice (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast), she very soon finished it off.
* * *
“What a curious feeling!” said Alice. “I must be shutting up like a telescope!”
And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this; “for it might end, you know,” said Alice to herself, “in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?” And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle looks like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.
After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it: She could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.
“Come, there’s no use in crying like that!” said Alice to herself, rather sharply. “I advise you to leave off this minute!” She generally gave herself very good advice (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. “But it’s no use now,” thought poor Alice, “to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!”
Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table; she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words “EAT ME” said beautifully marked in currants. “Well, I’ll eat it,” said Alice, “and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I’ll get into the garden, and I don’t care which happens!”
She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself “Which way? Which way?” holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing; and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size: to be sure, this is what generally happens when one eats cake; but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go in the common way.
So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
* * *
All new material copyright © 1988 by Jane Yolen

Excerpted from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is Robert Sabuda's most amazing creation yet, featuring stunning pop-ups illustrated in John Tenniel's classic style.

Faithful to Lewis Carroll's original text, this incredible novelty book features special effects like a Victorian peep show, multifaceted foil, tactile elements, and more! This pop-up is sure to become an instant favorite—one that readers will return to admire again and again.


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