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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 f... More

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

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