Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

Well... Steph and I are in the swing of things now!  Which is really to say that our lives are busy with a lot of the monotonous things in life.  Monotonous of course, when broken into its prefix, root word, and afterthought means "mono" - single, "tono" - tone, "ous"- to be of.  Which means little of nothing of extravagance  (Extra = lots of, vaga = to be vague, and nce = inconsequential)

Anyways, since we're just in the swing of things, and nothing peculiar or spectacular has been going on 'round here... I thought I'd put up a little excerpt of what I've been reading lately - seeing as what I've been reading lately would be highly applicable to any particular mother/father with any young children out there with imaginations and who like being read unto.

(By the way - the reason I'm reading this particular book is for two reasons -- 1) theres a movie coming out soon; and 2) Stephen Leacock enjoyed referring to this particular author in his own writing)

Sooooo, here's it is, and please, enjoy with particular attention to the particulars....

The Red Queen broke the silence by saying to the White Queen, `I invite you to Alice's dinner-party this afternoon.'

The White Queen smiled feebly, and said `And I invite you.'
`I didn't know I was to have a party at all,' said Alice; `but if there is to be one, I think I ought to invite the guests.'
`We gave you the opportunity of doing it,' the Red Queen remarked: `but I daresay you've not had many lessons in manners yet?'
`Manners are not taught in lessons,' said Alice. `Lessons teach you to do sums, and things of that sort.'
`And you do Addition?' the White Queen asked. `What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?'
`I don't know,' said Alice. `I lost count.'
`She can't do Addition,' the Red Queen interrupted. `Can you do Subtraction? Take nine from eight.'
`Nine from eight I can't, you know,' Alice replied very readily: `but -- '
`She can't do Subtraction,' said the White Queen. `Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife -- what's the answer to that?'
`I suppose -- ' Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen answered for her. `Bread-and-butter, of course. Try another Subtraction sum. Take a bone from a dog: what remains?'
Alice considered. `The bone wouldn't remain, of course, if I took it -- and the dog wouldn't remain; it would come to bite me -- and I'm sure I shouldn't remain!'
`Then you think nothing would remain?' said the Red Queen.
`I think that's the answer.'
`Wrong, as usual,' said the Red Queen: `the dog's temper would remain.'
`But I don't see how -- '
`Why, look here!' the Red Queen cried. `The dog would lose its temper, wouldn't it?'
`Perhaps it would,' Alice replied cautiously.
`Then if the dog went away, its temper would remain!' the Queen exclaimed triumphantly.
Alice said, as gravely as she could, `They might go different ways.' But she couldn't help thinking to herself, `What dreadful nonsense we are talking!'


------ from Chapter 10 of "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll (1871)

So - if your child can understand all that, then perhaps he/she will enjoy reading the two novels by Lewis Carroll - "Alice in Wonderland," and "Through the Looking Glass."
But it really is quite a bit of nonsense.