BERNARD PEPPERLIN

In this spinoff of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Dormouse longs to escape “liv[ing] forever at half past teatime.”

His chance comes when, during an argument with the March Hare and the Mad Hatter, the Dormouse is dropped in a teapot, and he is pulled by a strong current, swims through endless, bottomless liquid, and surfaces in a river beneath a bridge with huge, strange buildings on both shores. Of course this is modern-day New York City—or really two intertwining, parallel cities, one an accurate depiction of real places and the other populated by varieties of rodents, birds, bugs, and many other creatures, all living mostly unnoticed by almost all humans. They speak, wear clothes, have jobs, use their own transportation system, and enjoy interspecies friendships as well as share a dangerous common enemy. They welcome the Dormouse and introduce him to the delights and perils of this strange new world. Bernard, using his actual name for the first time ever, finds a sense of purpose in joining the fight to stop the dreaded Pork Pie Gang of weasels from achieving their goal of halting time. In this parallel New York City, Hoffman deftly creates a compellingly different kind of Wonderland, a place with its own set of realities and whose residents understand that, in spite of their differences, they are stronger together than apart.

Everything a fantasy should be and more. (Fantasy. 8-12)