Jabberwocky

Starred review from February 10, 2003
Stewart's (The Adventures of a Nose) mixed media art is as winsome, witty and wacky as Carroll's tongue-tripping poem, which first appeared in the pages of Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
in 1872. The opening spread features the entire poem on one page, opposite a sepia-toned, Edward Gorey–esque portrait of a boy dancing on the arm of the chair in which his proper father sits holding a large open book on his lap. A flip of the page catapults readers into the land of the Jabberwock (" 'Twas brillig...), in living color. The verse continues, line by line: vest-wearing, long-tailed "slithy toves" frolic among the trees and blue-beak-nosed "borogoves" swing peacefully in hammocks while fairy-like "mome raths outgrabe" (or play musical instruments, according to Stewart's interpretation). Signs posted on trees ("Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!") as well as a background image of the wide-mouthed villain, with red-and-white striped tail and lips, hint at the trouble to come. Alas, the cherubic child from the opening portrait, here bedecked in striped pantaloons and helmet, uses his sword masterfully to slay the creature (who turns out to be robotic, not flesh and blood). The young hero then goes "galumphing back" to celebrate with the slithy toves before nodding off with the borogoves, as narrative and visuals return to their idyllic starting point. A fittingly fanciful interpretation of this classic nonsense verse. Ages 4-7.

August 1, 2020

Gr 2-4-The nonsense poem of Lewis Carroll is brought to life as a long-haired warrior wearing a loincloth, both hands grasped around the hilt of a sword, stares into the distance. Badgers, tortoise, and parrots "gyre and gimble in the wabe," moving in every direction around a sundial in a forest scene bathed in golden light. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!" is paired with a full-page bird's-eye view of a dry riverbed with enormous footprints, conveying a sense of danger. The Jubjub bird and Bandersnatch fill the pages as a menacing pterodactyl-looking bird and warthog. Soon the Jabberwocky appears, here a slathering dragon with sharp teeth and golden eyes. The warrior, small in size compared to the Jabberwocky, pulls back his sword and triumphs over the beast as he stands atop the severed head. Finally, arms raised in victory, the warrior is depicted with a laurel-leaf crown against a blazing orange background: "O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" The beast is vanquished and the warrior is triumphant.VERDICT For those who like their nonsense epic and just a bit gory, the large scale scenes of glowering creatures and a triumphant warrior give new life to the poem.-Ramarie Beaver, formerly at Plano P.L., TX

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

A young hero takes on a truly humongous monster in the late Santore's final, probably, and most melodramatic set of illustrations. Nobly posed in a three-quarter-length portrait at the beginning, the White-presenting hero looks more wiry than ripped for all his bare chest and granite jaw--not the most likely sort to stand a chance against the immense, slavering, crocodilian beast that pounces in the climactic double gatefold. Still, one hack of the jeweled vorpal blade later, the creature's minivan-sized head lies in a pool of gore. (How the hero contrives to go galumphing back with it is left to the imagination, as in the next scene he's already raising his arms in triumph amid a cloud of parrotlike slithy toves to a chortled offstage "Callooh! Callay!") Being positively crowded with artfully detailed tortoises, sundials, and badgerlike creatures with long, pointy noses, the dim and mossy tulgey wood makes a properly surreal setting; for extra monster thrills the artist inserts separate outsized views of the likewise slavering Bandersnatch, part boar and part tiger, and a fantastically plumed and toothy Jubjub bird that looks as if it could have a T. rex for breakfast. In his note the artist discusses his approach to the nonsense poem and properly echoes Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice in encouraging readers to realize that "the words mean what they sound." 'Tis a brillig sendoff; fans of all things toothy and terrifying will gyre and gimble in its wabe. (Picture book poem. 6-10)

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