Anna James (2)

Very sweet if rather slight Alice sequel. James's characters are a little gentler than the original Carroll versions, but she's perfectly replicated their argumentative habits. Lots of wordplay and a little bit of logic play, too. It's a dangerous thing trying to to follow up a classic as idiosyncratic as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and this mostly succeeds. Plus, the illustrations are lovely.

A quick enjoyable read - I enjoy this series the more the bookwandering world is fleshed out. I really wish that this series had been around when I was a child. It's so magical and playful! In this third installment, Tilly is desperately trying to find the Archivists so they can right the wrongs that the head of the English Underlibrary are doing. Her grandparents don't believe that the archive - but her mother does. Tilly and her best friend Oskar are secreted out of London to Washington DC show more by her mother who wants them to follow the clues Tilly has gathered and find the archivists. With the help of her mother's friends; Tilly and Oskar go to the Library of Congress and encounter their biggest adventure ever. They encounter paper forests, magic trains, William Shakespeare, and more - but the clock is ticking - will they be able to save the future of bookwandering? Fun and inventive. I can't wait for more in this series! show less

The selections are very short, which might or might not be appealing depending on the reader, I suppose. I found myself wondering what a reader unfamiliar with the originals would make of these hacked-down-to-size excerpts. The selections from works I had never previously read were pretty easy to follow.

The anthology is basically secular in character. I think that, unlike visual or musical representations of Christmas, most literary representation tends to be secular, so I did not find this show more to be a distortion of the "literary. Christmas" tradition. Also, I think especially for a collection meant for children, the secular stories and verse are probably more enjoyable. In other anthologies, whether for adults or children, that try to be all things to all people, the inclusion of religious works sometimes seems forced.

I found some of the editorializing confounding, for example, this introduction to her selection from "Anne of Green Gables": "Even though Anne Shirley was created by Canadian writer L.M. Montgomery back in 1908, she is a heroine who has captured hearts and minds for generations since." I kept rereading that sentence trying to figure out her "Even though..." clause: what in that list does James think would lead the ordinary person to be surprised by Anne's enduring popularity? Are Canadian writers known for falling quickly out of favor; has L.M. Montgomery been canceled; was 1908 an especially bad year for children's literature? That sentence is also strange in that James refers to Anne as a "heroine," when, in her introduction to the anthology, she made such a big deal about how she had scrubbed from the book all language that might even possibly be misinterpreted as sexist or racist, and yet in her own editorial matter she uses language (denominating Anne Shirley a "heroine" rather than a hero) that even in 2019 (when the anthology was published) would already have been considered sexist. Physician, heal thyself.

American readers are likely to find the design more autumnal than Christmasy: the color palette is heavy on orange, red, yellow, Sienna, brown. The American turkey features prominently (and frequently) in the illustrations, which, again, will leave many American readers thinking more of Thanksgiving than Christmas. show less

A sequel to Tilly and the Bookwanderers. I enjoyed spending more time with Oscar's family and the politics of the underlibrary, as the fascist factions are rising and demanding more control in bookwandering. Gretchen as a character never quite lands though, I think we are supposed to feel sympathy for her love of freedom, but it just comes across as naive stupidity. Or maybe that is exactly what the author is aiming for, and the plot of these books is that Tilly is in a world where all show more adults are biased and flawed, and has to navigate a way through somehow? show less