In the enrichment sessions, the grade 5 group considered the puzzles and oddities of Alice in Wonderland. These included parody techniques, concrete poetry, wordplay, paradoxes, conundrums of math and science, and reversals of logic. With an eye toward fraud and forgery, the group used these and other techniques to write “missing chapters” in the style of Lewis Carroll. Perhaps some of the following excerpts are good enough to slip by an unsuspecting auctioneer??
* * *
Alice walked through a door and found herself in a garden. But this garden wasn’t normal, it was huge! And not just the grounds, the flowers, too. “Oh! What a beautiful sunflower garden,” Alice exclaimed.
Suddenly, one of the flowers looked down at Alice and said, “Thank you! I just got rid of my dead petals.”
Alice stumbled backwards from surprise and landed on her butt. “Did you just talk to me?” she asked. “B-b-because you can’t talk b-because you’re a f-flower and flowers can’t t-talk. I must have h-hit my head, and n-now I’m hearing things.”
While she was talking to herself, the flower stared down at her. Once Alice was done, the flower replied, “Of course I can talk, and it is extremely offensive for a… what are you?”
“I’m a girl, I suppose.”
“Oh. Well, it is extremely offensive for a girl to walk into my garden and say that I should not be able to talk. Good day.”
And with that, the flower stood up. Or rather straightened her stem and closed her eyes. “How easily creatures become offended in this place,” Alice thought. * * *
It started to get brighter. She was now capable of seeing the other person. Alice and the other person were both wearing the same thing. They looked exactly the same. Their hair, their face, and their clothing were exactly the same. “Oh my goodness!” said Alice. “You look exactly like me!”
“And you look exactly like me!” said the second Alice. Both the Alices paced around in circles studying each other and every few minutes, one of them gasped in disbelief at the sight of the other Alice. Finally Alice stopped.
* * *
She walked down the multi-colored bricks that seemed to smile at her in the sunlight. As she walked, she noticed a dog, a ladybug, and a large character with blue eyes that seemed to sparkle. He or she was as tall as a redwood tree. They seemed to be fighting about something. Alice said, "Excuse me, but why are you fighting?”
The dog said, "I think this ladybug is small, but the bug thinks I'm big. It thinks Greg here is huge. "
The redwood-sized giant said "HI". It boomed louder than the kettle at home.
Then the dog said, "But the giant said I am tiny and the bug is miniature. Who is right?"
Alice said, "I do not know." She walked down the brick road. * * *
Concrete parody in the shape of a chef's toque: