The Roundhill

King-Smith, Dick

ISBN 10: 0517800489 ISBN 13: 9780517800485

Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers, 2000

Synopsis

From the author of  Babe: The Gallant Pig comes a charming ghost story about a lonely boy who meets the real Alice in Wonderland--two years after she died!

She was an intruder to him at first. After all, the Roundhill is Evan's secret place--the spot he escapes to on school holidays. He doesn't want to share it with a strange girl in such old-fashioned clothes. But Alice has an intriguing way of knowing things--about him, about his house--that he has never told her. Odder still is that the more she talks about herself, the more mysterious she becomes. And how did she get through that locked door? At last Alice leads Evan to a special book and an incredible discovery--and the Roundhill was at the heart of the mystery all along.

About this title

Review:

The year is 1936, and 14-year-old Evan is miffed to find someone sitting in his special secret place on Roundhill, a hill near his home in England. Gradually, though, as he talks to this strange, old-fashioned girl named Alice, he becomes intrigued. Why does she speak in riddles? Why hasn't she heard of the word "okay"? Why does she use the past tense when talking about her life? Aside from his initial observation that she looks just like Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Evan is slow to believe that his mysterious new friend could actually be that Alice.

This touching tale of loneliness and friendship moves well beyond the realm of ghost story or mystery. Using the quiet subtlety readers first were smitten by in Babe: The Gallant Pig, Dick King-Smith explores the world of a loner in a less-than-warm home: "Evan, growing up in this atmosphere, had never actually thought of himself as unloved. He merely supposed that his parents' upper lips were generally too stiff to allow of such an action as a kiss." Evan's fantastic encounter with the ghost of Alice provides him with a whole new angle on life. Illustrator Sian Bailey does a remarkable job of imitating and expanding upon John Tenniel's original pictures of Alice from Lewis Carroll's classic. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter

From the Back Cover:

"Intriguing and mysterious, with a great ending. . . . Should appeal greatly."
--The Bookseller (London)

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0517800489
• ISBN 13: 9780517800485
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 96