Book talk: The kingdom is in trouble. The king has been missing for three months. People are getting restless and the king's trusted advisers have turned out to be scheming villains. When Scarlett discovers their evil plot, she decides to take matters into her own hands and lead a rescue party to find her father the king. But the only men she can find to help are the Walrus and the Carpenter, the infamous tricksters who lured unsuspecting young oysters onto their dinner plates. Will the young queen, two con artists, and her baby brother Rusty be able to survive mad pirates, evil assassins, and a dreaded snark to save the king?
Rocks my socks: Reading these comics filled me with laughter and a light-hearted sense of adventure. They are just plain fun. The nonsense world of Lewis Carroll is expanded in a most delightful way by Langridge. He takes up all the portmanteaus and fantastic scenarios and blends them seamlessly while creating something quite new. I reveled in all the Caroll references and had fun spotting them. I enjoyed seeing the new directions Langridge took the characters while retaining the flair that made them so endearing to begin with. The verse narration peppered throughout kept the material closely tied to the nonsense poems it is based on. Langridge clearly had as much fun writing and illustrating it as I did reading it and it shows in the small, humorous details such as the ad for tea on the inside cover of the first volume ("you don't have to be mad to drink tea - but it helps!") and the creative panel layouts.
Rocks in my socks: There probably were some minor flaws but I was having far too much fun reading the comics to notice them.
Every book its reader: You'll get more of the jokes if you have a knowledge of Lewis Carroll, but even if you don't there's still plenty to entertain and amuse here. There's abundant amounts of jokes aimed at kids, adults, and everything in-between making this great to read as a family. I'd give it to fans of nonsense and humor.
Extras:
I always liked the Walrus and the Carpenter sequence from the Disney Alice in Wonderland movie:
Apparently there's a musical version of The Hunting of the Snark by Mike Batt starring Billy Connolly, which brings to mind two questions: Where has this been all my life, and where can I find the rest of it?
You can find an early version of the musical presented in concert at the Royal Albert Hall in its entirety on YouTube. It stars Billy Connolly, John Hurt, and Roger Daltrey. I feel like I have done something right and am being rewarded even though this production has apparently been around for as long as I've been alive. Seriously, where has it been all my life? There goes my productivity for the next hour!
Source: school library
Snarked! by Roger Langridge: buy it or check it out today!
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