This work [...]]]>
.If you were wondering what to listen to in your car as you travel between Cut Bank, Montana, and McNab, Alberta (about a 105 minute drive, depending on traffic at the border), how about downloading Lewis Carroll’s mathematics book The Game of Logic, read as an audio book and free on iTunes?

This work is a part of the Lit2Go collection, a collaboration between the Florida Department of Education and the University of South Florida College of Education. Lit2Go is dedicated to supporting literacy teaching and learning by providing access to historically and culturally significant literature in K-12 schools.

They also have a complete audio book of Symbolic Logic, if you’re planning a longer drive. If you’d prefer to read The Game of Logic as a digital book or online, here it is free in many formats at Project Gutenberg.

   ---------------------
  |9        |         10|
  |         |           |
  |    -----x------     |
  |   |11   |    12|    |
  |   |     |      |    |
  |---y-----m------y'---|
  |   |     |      |    |
  |   |13   |    14|    |
  |    -----x'-----     |
  |         |           |
  |15       |         16|
   ---------------------

     COLOURS FOR              -------------
       COUNTERS              |5     |     6|
          ___                |      x      |
                             |      |      |
  See the Sun is overhead,   |--y-------y'-|
  Shining on us, FULL and    |      |      |
          RED!               |      x'     |
                             |7     |     8|
  Now the Sun is gone away,   -------------
  And the EMPTY sky is
          GREY!
          ___

Author C.M. Rubin (The Real Alice in Wonderland) has a new blog post at The Huffington Post about Sir William Blake Richmond’s 1864 painting of the [...]]]>

The Sisters (1864) by Sir William Blake Richmond can be seen at the Alice In Wonderland exhibit at Tate Liverpool (Photo courtesy of Tate Images)

Author C.M. Rubin (The Real Alice in Wonderland) has a new blog post at The Huffington Post about Sir William Blake Richmond’s 1864 painting of the Liddell sisters, now on display at the Tate Liverpool’s Alice in Wonderland exhibit (which closes January 29th – hurry!)

In the summer of 1864, Alice Liddell (Lewis Carroll’s inspiration for Alice in Wonderland) and her two sisters, Lorina (who inspired the Lory) and Edith (who inspired the Eaglet), posed for up to 10 hours a day while the distinguished English artist, Sir William Blake Richmond, created one of his most famous paintings, called The Sisters. The painting of the three Liddell sisters set against the background of the Great Orme, Llandudno’s famous mountain, is one of the highlights of the Tate Liverpool’s Alice in Wonderland exhibition. Sir William Blake Richmond painted the portraits of the most prominent people of the day. The Sisters, well received by the art critics of the day, was regarded by Richmond as a milestone in his career. Sir William had this to say about Alice Liddell:

“Little Alice, to whose pretty face and lovely coloring no reproduction can do justice, is seen on the right in profile, peering at the big volume on her sister’s lap.” [continue reading...]

This free kids’ game was added last week at the so-called bestonlinekidsgames.com. We were hoping for an action-packed hunting game on open oceans and strange islands or a shoot-em-up video game in the style of Deer Hunter. [...]]]>

Screen Shot of Level 6 from The Hunting of the Snark kids game from Hairy Games

This free kids’ game was added last week at the so-called bestonlinekidsgames.com. We were hoping for an action-packed hunting game on open oceans and strange islands or a shoot-em-up video game in the style of Deer Hunter. (Actually, when you think about it, The Hunting of the Snark has many scenarios that would translate excellently into a video game. Anyone care to join the Beaver hunting the Jubjub in an increasingly narrow valley?) However, this game from Hairy Games seems to be mostly a fork poking at pictures of Snark characters and getting its prongs bent. “The Hunting of the Snark is combination of mazes, jigsaw and hidden objects puzzles games. This game is crated [sic] of famous story of mysterious creature, Snark who lived in a lonely island and the quest of some brave explorers to find it, by Lewis Caroll [sic sic sic].” The game was designed by Long Leaf’s Friends, and the pretty cool art is by B. Rybacki.

Pearls Before Swine collection by Stephan Pastis

Larry in Wonderland: A Pearls before Swine Collection gathers together almost [...]]]> Tidying up some loose ends from 2011, I found a couple of books that still deserve a mention. Comics and crosswords – what more do you need on a Saturday?

Pearls Before Swine collection by Stephan Pastis

Larry in Wonderland: A Pearls before Swine Collection gathers together almost a year’s worth of Stephan Pastis’s bizarre parliament of animals. In these strips, which ran between August 2009 and May 2010, Pastis really had fun with a Wonderland theme, introducing such characters as the Mad Ducker, Cheshire Snuffles, Tweedledum Pig, and Tweedledee Idiot Pig.

The book is currently only $6.49 on Amazon.

Mad Hatter Crosswords reproduces 75 puzzles from the New York Times. An admirably dedicated reviewer has identified them as the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday crosswords published between January 2009 and April 2010. The Mad Hatter connection doesn’t seem to go beyond the cover illustration, through it is true that crosswords go very well with tea.

NYT Mad Hatter Crosswords

The collection is published by St. Martin’s Griffin and is available from Amazon for $7.99.