Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

reimagined and illustrated by Christopher Myers. 2007. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. (9781423103721). 

Media: watercolor and acrylic paints

Author/Illustrator Website: none

Awards and Honors: Booklist, Starred Review

Annotation: 

A creative reimagining of Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll's famous poem from Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Personal Reaction:

      Christopher Myers' colorful and creative spin on the most famous gibberish verse in the English language bristles with energy and dynamism. Myers has (through research and a few artistic liberties) transformed a poem that is ostensibly about a knight who slays a monster into a modern verse about a one-on-one basketball challenge. The Jabberwocky becomes a dark, hulking, 13-fingered giant with glowing eyes and flashing teeth. The hero is a boy who appears, sneakers in hand, to challenge the monster on the court. He makes quick work of the Jabberwocky ("One, two! One, two! And through, and through") and struts off the court dribbling the basketball. Myers accompanies the action with illustrations that set up the context- children running through opened fire hydrants, playing double-dutch and shooting marbles. This contemporary interpretation would be an excellent way to introduce a classic poem to students, or to supplement curriculum on British literature.

    

Curriculum Connection: Middle school language arts- poetry