Alice’s adventures in panorama

by Alex Mazariegos

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a stone-cold classic in the world of children’s literature, and I’ll hear no words to the contrary. The original Tenniel illustrations, however, are a different beast entirely. His renderings of Alice and crew do fit the tone of story at times, but it’s always nice to see different visual interpretations of Carroll’s story. Luckily, the office just received a small gift from Wonderland: Panorama Pops: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Candlewick, August 2015).

This year the British Royal Mail commemorated the 150th anniversary of the publication of Wonderland by asking Grahame Baker-Smith (winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal) to provide new illustrations for a special set of stamps. The resulting illustrations certainly breathe new life to Carroll’s story.

   The sprawling quasi-pop-up set includes excerpts from the story as well as a brief section on “Alice’s Legacy” and background information on the origins of Wonderland and sequel Through the Looking-Glass. You can read all about Carroll’s process of creating Wonderland while admiring the included passages, which will remind you that you should probably reread the story again anyway.

Baker-Smith’s illustrations, of course, focus on Wonderland’s most famous characters; the Cheshire Cat stands out in particular. The pop-up aspect is cooler than I anticipated. It’s an inspired touch that adds a nice little oomph to the illustrations.