personaly i love the book it is a wonderful world that i can escape into. there arent many book i like and this i one i own because when i find good book i buy them and im getting the hole series because i cant wait till what will happen next.
The Looking Glass Wars, Book 1
(2006, Fiction - Fantasy, Written by Frank Beddor)
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Is it age appropriate?
About our ratings -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
The violent "truth" behind Alice in Wonderland.
Why We Rated This 
for Ages 9 and Up
The good stuff
What to watch out for
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Violence:
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Sex:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
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Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
What Parents Need to Know
This review of The Looking Glass Wars, Book 1 was written by Matt Berman
Parents need to know that this isn't a quaint nonsense story like the classic book that inspired it: There are violent battles, deaths, and beheadings. The heroine's mother dies.
Families Can Talk About
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- Families can talk about how this book compares to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. How does the author derive his story from Carroll's very different book? Do his interpretations seem reasonable?
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More on The Looking Glass Wars, Book 1
Book Summary
Forget what you thought you knew about Alice and Wonderland -- this book purports to tell the truth behind the fairy tale.
Alyss, princess of the Queendom of Wonderland, barely escapes with her life when her Aunt Redd kills her parents in a bloody coup. Pursued by The Cat, an assassin created by Redd (a witch-like practitioner of Black Imagination), Alyss jumps through the Pool of Tears and ends up in Victorian London, where, after living as a street urchin and in an orphanage, she's adopted by the Liddell family of Oxford.
Frustrated that no one will believe the story of her past, she's at first thrilled when family friend Charles Dodgson seems to believe her. But when he turns it into a fairy tale, she's devastated and resolves to forget Wonderland and assimilate as a normal British person. Eventually she grows up and forgets about Wonderland, or sees it only as a childish fantasy. But back in Wonderland her persecuted followers, the Alyssians, take up a guerrilla resistance to the harsh rule of Queen Redd.
Is It Any Good?
A sea-change is happening in children's book publishing, taking nearly a decade to come to its logical culmination in this book. Written by a movie producer, plotted and paced like a movie, and promoted like one too, THE LOOKING GLASS WARS is a book designed for one thing -- to grab kids by the seat of the pants and keep them excitedly turning the pages. It accomplishes its goal with verve and imagination.
Alice in Wonderland purists shouldn't even open the book -- this isn't for them. The Wonderland depicted here is both more horrific and more exciting than the surreal place Carroll imagined. Filled with monsters, magic, and a mixture of technologies, it's at once more fantastic and more grounded in the reality of war and totalitarian repression than its predecessor. Though The Looking Glass Wars is filled with topics for discussion (from literature to politics, history, and biography) and includes many parallels to events in today's world, this story is essentially fun -- well-written, well-constructed, lovingly thought-out and produced fun. It will do no harm at all to Carroll's classic -- which has always held more appeal for adults than children anyway -- and may interest a new generation of readers in the original.
Publisher’s Details
Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc., Publication date: 09/26/2006
Number of pages: 384, Price: $16.99 (hardcover)
Read Aloud: 9, Read Alone: 10
Number of pages: 384, Price: $16.99 (hardcover)
Read Aloud: 9, Read Alone: 10
Our Members Say
See all 6 member reviews
Most Recent Reviews
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I rate this title on for age 10 and give it
perfect for teens and adults
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I rate this title on for age 9 and give it
- My highlights are:
- Good role models
Brilliant for all!
LOVE IT! SO AWESOME! THE BEST BOOK YOU WILL EVER READ!
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I rate this title on for age 11 and give it
LOVED IT!!
A little slow at first, but when i got into it i just couldn't put it down. It was super awsome!!! There was some romance between alyce and dodge that will grow overtime and a little violence here and there but it was a GREAT BOOK!!
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
So awsome
it was really cool, w/ a bit of romance... but mostly action/adventure. really lovable characters...it's a series, u guys so be warned ur gonna hav to wait 4 the next ones!!!
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
This was so great! I loved it!
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