Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Author: Lewis Carroll
• Publishing: Public Domain Books. May 1st, 1997. 
• Synopsis: Alice is sitting outdoors when she spies a white rabbit. She follows the rabbit down the hole. She falls for a long time, and finds herself in a long hallway full of doors. There is also a key on the table, which unlocks a tiny door; through this door, she spies a beautiful garden, but the door is too small. Soon, she finds a drink with a note that asks her to drink it. There is later a cake with a note that tells her to eat; Alice uses both, but she cannot seem to get to the right size to enter the door. While she is tiny, she slips and falls into a pool of water. She realizes that this little sea is made of tears she cried while a giant. She swims to shore with a number of animals, most notably a sensitive mouse, but manages to offend everyone by talking about her cat's ability to catch birds and mice. Left alone, she goes on through the wood and runs into the White Rabbit. He mistakes her for his maid and sends her to fetch some things from his house. While in the White Rabbit's home, she drinks another potion and becomes too huge to get out through the door. She eventually finds a little cake which, when eaten, makes her small again. In the wood again, she comes across a caterpillar sitting on a mushroom. He gives her advice, as well as a valuable tool: the two sides of the mushroom, which can make Alice grow larger and smaller. The first time she uses them, she stretches her body out tremendously. While stretched out, she pokes her head into the branches of a tree and meets a Pigeon. The pigeon is convinced that Alice is a serpent and tells her to be off.Alice gets herself down to normal proportions and continues on through the woods. In a clearing she comes across a little house. It is the house of the Duchess; the Duchess and the cook are battling fiercely, and they seem unconcerned about the safety of the baby that the Duchess is nursing. Alice takes the baby with her, but the child turns into a pig and trots off into the woods. Alice next meets the Cheshire cat. The Cheshire cat helps her to find her way through the woods, but he warns her that everyone she meets will be mad. Alice goes to the March Hare's house, where she is treated to a Mad Tea Party. Ever since Time stopped working for the Hatter, it has always been six o'clock; it is therefore always teatime.  Alice leaves them and finds a tree with a door in it: when she looks through the door, she spies the door-lined hallway from the beginning of her adventures. This time, she is prepared, and she manages to get to the lovely garden that she saw earlier. She walks on through, and finds herself in the garden of the Queen of Hearts. There, three gardeners are painting the roses red. If the Queen finds out that they planted white roses, she'll have them beheaded. The Queen herself soon arrives and orders their execution; Alice  hides them in a large flowerpot. The Queen invites Alice to play croquet where the balls and mallets are animals. The game is interrupted by the appearance of the Cheshire cat, whom the King of Hearts immediately dislikes. The Queen takes Alice to the Gryphon, who in turn takes Alice to the Mock Turtle. The Mock Turtles sings a sad song about turtle soup, and soon afterward the Gryphon drags Alice off to trial of the Knave of Hearts. The Knave of Hearts has been accused of stealing the tarts of the Queen of Hearts, but the evidence against him is very bad. Alice is appalled by the ridiculous proceedings.  She refuses to be intimidated by the bad logic of the court and the bluster of the King and Queen of Hearts. Suddenly, the cards all rise up and attack her, at which point she wakes up. Her adventures in Wonderland have all been a fantastic dream.
• This story is told with the work of the narrator with excellent imagery throughout that makes the reader feel as though they are actually in wonderland too. The illustrations on the cover by give a dream like feeling that greatly complements the dream like theme of the story. 
• I really enjoyed this book because it is a story that truly has stood the test of time and will always be a classic. I really enjoy the detailed description of every place and eery event that happens to Alice in Wonderland because it really helps the reader to feel involved in the book and while reading I felt like I was there with Alice on each step of her journey. 
• While reading I thought of a number of ways to incorporate this book into lesson plans. The first way I thought of would be to use this book to do a sequencing activity. One way to do this would be to have different events written on strips of paper and then ask students to form a line in order of how the events happened and then read off their strips in order to see if they are all in the correct place. Another way would be to have the class sit in a circle and retell the story with each student taking turns being the narrator. For more activities on sequencing, you can click here: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skill_builders/sequencing_language_arts_third_3rd_grade.htm
• I also found a website with excellent lesson plan ideas for using Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that can be accessed here: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/alice-in-wonderland.cfm
• Another idea I had was to have a class Mad Hatter Tea Party as a fun activity when when we celebrate finishing the book. I would bring in tea and cookies and we would reenact the tea party which I think would be fun for the students. 
• I found and awesome book trailer for the story of Alice that can be located here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7lUXjpiAF4
• For more information on the author, you can check out his biography here: http://www.biography.com/people/lewis-carroll-9239598