From Alice to Harry Potter: Children's Fantasy in England

The longer I live, the more I am convinced of the importance of children's books.' When Robert Bloomfield wrote this in 1817 he could have had no idea of the range of children's books to come, nor of how in England fantasy would be their outstanding form. 

The Lovely Bones is a 2002 novel by Alice Sebold. It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being brutally raped and murdered, watches from heaven as her family and friends go on with their lives, while she herself comes to terms with her own death. The novel received a great deal of critical praise and became an instant bestseller.

Short stories about a sister and her little brother.

Alice enjoys playing soccer and working on her go-kart. But when she moves to the suburbs, Zen, the boy down the street tells her she has no hope of fitting in at her new middle school unless she starts acting more "like a girl." Alice suddenly realizes that being different can set you apart...and being friends with someone like Zen can set you way apart. Why does being yourself have to be so complicated?

Reading Level: Grade 4
Interest Level: Grades 4-7
Ages: 9-13

This manuscript is the original version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, the pen-name of Charles Dodgson, an Oxford mathematician.

Dodgson was fond of children and became friends with Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell, the young daughters of the Dean of his college, Christ Church. One summer's day in 1862 he entertained them on a boat trip with a story of Alice's adventures in a magical world entered through a rabbit-hole. The ten-year-old Alice was so entranced that...