This classic tale has been retold countless times. In this graphic novel, Alice falls down a rabbit hole and into Wonderland. A crazy, humorous, and sometimes scary place.

The artwork is very lovely, and young readers will enjoy it, as well as older readers. The dialogue is easy to read and funny. I love that the Mad Hatter looks like Jay Leno, and a card has the V for Vendetta mask on. ( )

A cute adaptation of Alice in Wonderland that is more an amalgamation of the various popular versions than anything else, Rod Espinosa keeps to the original sense of the tale, while making it lighthearted enough for anyone to be able to enjoy. Some might say too lighthearted, but I'd like to think that possibly this version would open doors to readers unfamiliar with the Lewis Carroll original to give it a try.

With his art style firmly grounded in a manga esthetic, Espinosa gives his own twist on each of the characters. While this mostly works, some of them are a little off for me (such as the Mad Hatter being a clear caricature of Jay Leno - why?), while others are wildly original and unique (I love his Queen of Hearts!).

All around, a fun adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and one that I'm sure will appeal to younger audiences. ( )

Have we created more adaptations of Alice in Wonderland than strictly necessary? NEVER. I love the story -- I still mourn the loss of the big fat Alice/Looking Glass combo I owned as a kid -- so I'm always up for a new version.

Espinosa's approach to the story, in graphic novel form, looked promising, and it's cute enough, but I may have expected too much from it. I prefer a little more twist in my Alice adaptations, but this a very straightforward rendering that hits most of the high points of Carroll's story while retaining a clean, easy-to-understand plot that moves forward quickly. It might be too straightforward for some readers, but it doesn't drag or become a jumbled mess, despite many panels that are simply Alice making surprised faces or exclaiming at something or other.

I don't read a lot of manga, and the art isn't the sort I usually dig, but Espinosa's style is charming at times: I love the Cheshire Cat, and the hedgehogs in the croquet scenes were adorable. On the whole, though, the drawings didn't add anything to my enjoyment of the story. I don't think that's Espinosa's fault; it's either an art style you like or it's one that leaves you cold, and it's pretty subjective. Do you like the cover? If so, you'll probably like what's inside the book.

Overall, this variation of Alice in Wonderland didn't do much for me -- too simplistic and drawn in a style that left me meh for the most part -- but I do think that it would be a great way to introduce younger kids to the original story. My eldest is currently on a graphic novel kick and I can easily imagine her loving Espinosa's rendition.
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One flip through this adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale will demonstrate Espinosa’s love of stories. He highlights the essential parts of the story, while staying true to the spirit of the novel. The images will surely be appealing to anyone who enjoys graphic novels as they demonstrate identifiable influences of Japanese manga and Disney cartoons. This is a great way to introduce the younger crowd to this timeless tale—and to graphic novels in general—as the vocabulary is not too difficult and the charming images really help deliver the wonders of Carroll’s story.

Story & Pacing: 9
The beauty of graphic novels, aside from the pictures, is that the story moves very quickly, and this is true of Espinosa’s retelling. The plot remains faithful to Carroll’s original, and the dialogue between the characters captures their personalities very well.

Characters: 9
The characters are nicely drawn, in general. I did find that the white rabbit’s eyes were a little scary as they were devoid of pupils! This is true of a couple of other characters, as well. Aside from this, Espinosa keeps the characters as Carroll wrote them, and they are a charming bunch.

Setting: 8
The setting fluctuates between Alice’s “real” world and her dream world down the rabbit hole. Espinosa draws with excellent attention to details (especially the tea party scene), which makes it very easy to get lost in the story! For fans of the original, it will be nice to see Espinosa’s take on Carroll’s narrative descriptions.

Style & Writing: 8
Espinosa stays true to the spirit of Carroll’s story. The dialogue is easy to understand as vocabulary and sentence structure are simple. He does make changes in terms of characters’ (especially Alice’s) idiomatic expressions, which very often parallel manga dialogue. Interjections, in particular, are much more modern than one would expect of a Carroll tale, but this probably enhances its appeal to today’s readers.

Learnability & Teachability: 8
This is a good book to introduce younger readers to graphic novels as well as to classics without requiring them to read the full original novel. The pictures help deliver the story, capturing and holding the attention of the readers.

POTENTIAL TEACHABLES
Adaptations from novels to graphic novels; transforming classics to make them more appealing to modern readers; capturing the voice of an author and the spirit of a story; identifying the important parts of a story to retain, the parts to translate into images, and the parts to obliterate; providing clues about a character and setting through images and without words; furthering a plot using images; creating storyboards; telling a story without words. ( )

Background: The fun loving story of Alice in Wonderland adapted by Rod Espinosa into Graphic Novel form. With all the quarks of the original Lewis Carroll masterpiece, Espinosa does a wonderful job with the tale.

Review: This adaptation takes from both Lewis Carroll's written masterpiece and Disney's animated Alice in Wonderland, but is very similar to both, with only a few minor alteration. It was beautifully drawn and written to highlight the more entertaining parts of the original. Espinosa's rendition was fun to read and easy to follow. If you enjoy Alice in Wonderland, please grab this beautiful adaptation ( )