CM Magazine: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat: Poems and Songs from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

________________ CM . . . . Volume VII Number 10 . . . . January 19, 2001

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat: Poems and Songs from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

Lewis Carroll. Illustrated by John Tenniel.
London, UK: Macmillan Children's Books (Distributed in Canada by McClelland & Stewart), 1998.
77 pp., cloth, $12.99.
ISBN 0-333-73342-8.

Grades 3 and up / Ages 8 and up.

Review by Luella Sumner.

**** /4

excerpt:

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!

Victorian children were expected to memorize and recite poems which were long, often serious, and definitely designed to improve young minds. They must have been thrilled then by Lewis Carroll's amusing parodies of many of these poems. The original poem by Isaac Watt, "Against Idleness and Mischief" began:

excerpt:

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

Carroll's comic verse continues to amuse us today even though we are not familiar with the poetry he was mocking, This edition, with the well-known art work [copyrighted in 1911] depicting all the characters from Wonderland, should be a hit both with parents and children.

Highly Recommended.

Luella Sumner is the librarian at Red Rock Public Library in Red Rock, ON.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - January 19, 2001.