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The "true story" behind Alice in Wonderland! Princess Alyss Heart is brutally cast out of Wonderland by her vicious Aunt Redd, who beheads Alyss' mother (Off with her head, she cries!) and begins to rule over Wonderland with an iron fist. Alyss escapes from Wonderland and is exiled to another world entirely--Victorian London--where she is adopted into a new family, renamed Alice, and befriended by Lewis Carroll. At age 20 she returns to Wonderland to battle Redd, reclaim the throne, and lead Wonderland into its next golden age of imagination.
Narrator Doyle brings to life this fanciful re-imagining of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The premise has young Alyss Hart, heiress to the Wonderland throne, chased from the "queendom" in a bloody coup mounted by her despotic Aunt Redd. Alyss escapes through a magical pool to Victorian London. There, no one will listen to her story except for Charles Dodgson (aka Carroll) who publishes his own take. A theater-trained actor, Doyle artfully animates a large and diverse cast of fantasy and real-life characters. He's especially menacing as the murderous Aunt Redd, each high-pitched syllable dripping with malice. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Doyle quietly captures the resignation in Alyss's tender voice as she grows older in exile. For the duty-driven royal bodyguard Hatter Madigan, he colors his delivery with a determined stoicism as he seeks his missing charge. Doyle also navigates the social echelons of 19th-century England-from street urchins to palace guards to princes. In some exchanges, the vocal residue of one character bleeds into the voice of another. But that is a minor quibble. Doyle juggles an eclectic and other-worldly ensemble, never letting anything hit the ground. Ages 9-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
More Reviews and RecommendationsFrank Beddor is a film producer, screenwriter, ski champ, online gamer, and novelist. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
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November 20, 2009: ok im kind of a picky reader, if it dosnt have a good story i dont reed over 30 pages, i've read almost 400 books and this has to be one of the best i've read. although short i couldn't put this thing down, after finishing i had to find the second, now im praying to get the third for x-mass but heres hoping. xD
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September 09, 2009: It seems that Beddor has uncovered the truth. Children all over the world have been told only the "nice historical version" of Alice's adventures as written by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland - and what a fantastical tale it was! But as we all know, there comes a time when adults must push the happy children's tales aside and reveal to their maturing children the truth of the matter. Unless, of course, they'd prefer that their children learn the truth on the streets! Children will not be duped forever. Now, for the first time, the whole truth of Alice's adventures comes to light.
First of all, Alice's name is really Alyss Heart. It seems that someone went to great lengths to conceal Alyss's identity - for her own good, I'm sure. Now, you finally get to read the full scope of Alyss's adventures from her forbidden childhood romance, her willful nature, her struggle and loss of control of Wonderland, her escape to our world, her troubled childhood as an orphan in both worlds, her struggle with her destiny as Wonderland's rightful queen and her eventual return and fight to reclaim her rightful place as the new Queen of Hearts. So, you think I told you too much? You think I spoiled the ending? Ah, but that's the beauty of this book. You can't know the outcome of this tale until you get there. This story is even more fantastical in its telling than the well-known children's version we all grew up with. Happy reading!I Also Recommend: Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely Series #1), Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely Series #2), Seeing Redd (Looking Glass Wars Series #2), Seeing Redd (Looking Glass Wars Series #2), Princess Alyss of Wonderland.