Story Time: Alice In Wonderland – Down the Rabbit Hole (28/03/2015)
| Venue | ： | Causeway Bay Kiddyland Basement, 68 Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay, H.K. |
| Speaker | ： | Sue Ribeiro |
Review
Most of the children at our Story Time on "Alice in Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole" on Saturday 28th March were quite young, with only a few birthdays behind them. For them, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland was something rather unusual.
Mrs. Susan Ribeiro (Auntie Sue), our storyteller of the day, was just the right person for this event because she knows Oxford in England very well. This is where Lewis Carroll first created this famous tale for the three daughters of his boss Henry Liddell, who was the Dean of Christ Church College at Oxford University in the 1860's. Auntie Sue loved the story as a young girl and still does -- which is why she wore an Alice-type dress on the day.
The story was first told to the Liddell girls by Lewis Carroll while they were punting along the river one summer's day. Later it was written down as a gift for Alice, who was Carroll's favourite and became the heroine named in the story. Alice's adventures after falling down a rabbit hole became extraordinarily popular after they were published by Macmillan in 1865, with spiky illustrations by Sir John Tenniell, the famous Punch cartoonist. The book has been in print ever since, making it a children's classic.
To help bring this strange tale to life, Auntie Sue brought along several props such as a pair of gloves, a fan, a big pocket clock belonging to the White Rabbit, the golden key, a bottle labelled "Drink Me" and a box for a tiny cake labelled "Eat Me", and even a stuffed lizard called Bill. The children had great fun calling out "Eat Me!" and "Drink Me!" as Alice came across the bottle and little box, and were surprised to see the changes in Alice in the big pictures on the projector. Just like Alice, they found each encounter becoming "curiouser and curiouser" and were amazed to see Alice change from tiny to big to tall and even gigantic! Alice meets many interesting animals such as Dodo, Mouse, Duck, Eaglet and a blue caterpillar, and the audience loved identifying them in the illustrations. With all these dramatic changes in such a short time, the children found themselves sighing "Phew!" along with Alice when she finally reverted to her normal girlie size.
Hong Kong children do not have many chances to meet a rabbit so making a White Rabbit drawing by numbers was great fun. Each child queued up patiently to show with pride their special rabbit (with pink eyes) to Auntie Sue, who handed out homemade cookies and a special Alice in Wonderland sticker to all. We ended the celebration with all the kids holding a white Alice balloon and shouting "Drink Me!" and "Eat Me!" for the photographers. What a great introduction to Wonderland.
It seems that boys and girls of all ages are still enthralled by this fantastic tale. So Mums and Dads, now is the time to choose an edition suitable for your child (there are many of them!) and to read them the whole story; before long you will have a reader who reads the original.
