Read Monday Night
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
Visually interpreted by Graeme Base
Based on the poem by Lewis Carroll from Through the Looking Glass, this book is a visual and aural feast to the imagination. Illustrated by Graeme Base of Animalia fame, you could easily sit for hours pouring over the fantastical creatures detailed on the pages. One of the best aspects, of course, are the words invented by Carroll, such as this opening phrase:
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
You don’t know what the words mean, but you can almost infer from the context and organization. This would be a great exercise with an older reader, to try and think of new words, or new meanings for words. For a younger pre-reader or toddler, I really think the text is a little beyond them, and could possibly cause confusion. However, when read with this beautifully illustrated version, you can almost skip the words and just look at pictures. The book does have many pages with no words at all, Jabberwocky actually being a relatively short poem.
Be warned, the illustrated Jabberwocky creature can seem scary to some children, and the ending page may also disturb them, being comprised of a two-page spread of fantastical creature’s heads on a trophy wall. But I do recommend this to older readers and to those toddlers and pre-readers who aren’t too sensitive.
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