Thursday, February 21, 2013

Howard, A.G. Splintered.


Howard, A.G.  Splintered.     Amulet see Abrams, Harry  371p  $17.95    
978-1-4197-0428-4 2013  ms/hs   E-BN  Fantasy  

Alyssa Gardner hears the thoughts of plants and animals.  Her great-great-great-grandmother was Alice Liddell, who told her magical stories to Lewis Carroll, who in turn spun them into the novel Alice in Wonderland.  This is Alyssa’s story about why she went back down the rabbit’s hole to free her family from the curse of insanity.   Alyssa’s home life was centered on visiting her mother in an insane asylum.  She also had to work for spending money because of the expenses paid out for her mother’s support.

Alyssa’s hobby is collecting bugs, moths, and butterflies to make beautiful mosaics.  And as a typical teenager she has a crush on Jeb, the boy next door.  However, things are not right between Alyssa and her mother because of the curse from Wonderland.  Alyssa decides to go down the rabbit hole with Jeb as her trusty companion.
While Alyssa is in Wonderland she finds that all is not what she thought. The characters are different from what they were in Carroll’s novel (for example, Rabid White and Queen Grenadine), and it was all a game in which the characters played the parts from a book written by a human.  She also learns that the original Alice did not come back to the real world. Instead, the exiled Queen Grenadine escaped Wonderland and returned to the human world to marry and give birth to netherlings (half human, half magical).  The magic only passes through the female line, and since queens rule Wonderland, that makes Alyssa heir to the lost throne of Wonderland.

The author has written an alternate magical interpretation of the Alice In Wonderland story.  Readers will love the characters antics and outlandish behavior.  The magical wonders of Wonderland and the unique abilities of the fantasy characters will encourage many a reader to wonder about the magical world of plants and animals in their own gardens.        

Fantasy–Fiction, Alice in Wonderland–Spinoffs              --Linda McNeil

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