’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.”

So starts ‘The Return of the Jabberwock’ by Oakley Graham, a fun children’s rhyming picture book. The story is based on Lewis Carroll’s wonderful nonsense poem ‘The Jabberwocky’ and tells the story of a young boy who aims to destroy the monster just like his great grandfather before him. While travelling through the woods he meets what he believes to be all sorts of terrible monsters, before finally coming face to face with (possibly) The Jabberwock.

My kids and I really enjoyed this book. I think it’s a brilliant idea to take something old and give a fresh new twist on it. The book is beautifully illustrated by David Neale, and his depiction of the shadowy Jabberwock is ghastly (…in a good way!)

If i were to be critical, I felt that some of the rhyming was amateurish and forced in certain places, it didn’t quite feel right. But overall it was fine and as a book we really enjoyed it and will read it again. I also feel it will spark my children’s interest in looking into the actual Lewis Carroll classics.