Fantasy Book Critic: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll Illustrations by Camille Rose Garcia (Spotlighted by Cindy Hannikman)

Alice in Wonderland has always been a major staple within my life. From the time I was young I have been influenced with a number of Alice books, pop-ups, merchandise, you name it if Alice was on it I've probably seen it, or read it. So with the release of Tim Burton's new movie on March 5, 2010, I find it fitting to feature this Alice in Wonderland story with all new illustrations from Camille Rose Garcia.

Camille Rose Garcia is most widely known for her Gothic like illustrations of various cartoon characters/children living in a wasteland like fairy tale land. In 2007 a retrospect of her work was put together titled Tragic Kingdom, a book with the similar name is also available. Camille Rose Garcia is also known for her artwork in the children's book, The Magic Bottle.

Camille Rose Garcia's illustrations supplement an unabridged version of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This version of Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland is a New York Time Bestseller.

I was a little unsure about the Gothic representation of Alice and how it would really come across. Alice is a character that is known for her innocence and it was hard trying to picture her in a gothic representation. Surprisingly Camille Rose Garcia's illustrations work throughout the whole book.

The coloring of the illustrations is what first stands out. There are plenty of purples, blacks, and magenta colors that blend well and make the pictures just stand out to the reader. The parts of the book that Camille Rose Garcia choose to illustrate really represent the book and make for an enjoyable reading experience.

While not every page is adorned with pictures, there are plenty of full length page illustrations, an occasional double page illustration (most fitting is the one when Alice grows in the house), and throughout the book there are smaller side page illustrations that add to the story. For pictures that might be considered "over the top" there is just the right amount of pictures to portray the story yet not over do it and burden the reader with unnecessary photos. There was real thought put behind each scene that was illustrated and that comes across in this version of Alice.

Although this is a more modernistic illustration of a classic, never once is the essence of the story of Alice's Adventure in Wonderland taken away or overshadowed. For that lovers of classic stories can rest assure and hopefully warm up to newer look.

Thanks to the folks at Collins Design, Fantasy Book Critic readers get to have a taste of some of the wonderful illustrations that are found throughout this version of Alice's Adventure in Wonderland.

12:01 AM |

Posted by Cindy |

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2 comments:

Liviu said...: I have to say that those illustrations are superb.; March 4, 2010 at 11:01 PM
Cindy said...: They do capture the best parts of the story. Even those ones not shown are great!

It makes me want to check out Camille Rose Garcia's other works!; March 5, 2010 at 12:31 AM