iiiiReader Book Reviews

I am a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass coloring books. In this second coloring book in her Alice Nightmare series, the artist (Shalla Mar N. Mugot) takes on a nightmare version of Alice’s Trough the Looking Glass.

As with the previous book, the story stays true to the book but the vision is seriously different. This is not a coloring book for little children (and there is an appropriate warning on the back of the page. There are some fairly twisted and creepy characters and some slightly gory scenes as well. Be sure to check my silent, full-book video to see if this book will work for you.

The designs are detailed but do not, for the most part, include intricate elements with lots of tiny spots to color. Some of the designs incorporate a good bit of black as a pre-colored element to the illustration.

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This is another lovely coloring book of designs based on the Christmas/winter artwork of Margaret Tarrant. For the most part, the designs have been rendered in line drawings very well. There are a number; however, which are too simplistic (especially those of snowmen) and could have had more detail added.

Unlike the fairies book (which was brown lines on white paper), this coloring book is done with green lines on white paper. Perhaps to show the holiday spirit. The line drawings are on the right side of the page and a full color image of the artwork is shown on the facing left side of the page.

While some of the designs are lacking in detail, most have a good amount of detail sufficient for coloring but still allowing room for shading, blending, and adding one’s own embellishments.

There is, once again, a short history of Ms. Tarrant’s art at the front of the book. Unlike the previous book, there are no title banners on each of the designs. Both ways work for me, so I have no problem with it. It might have been nice to include a page which gave pertinent information about each design.

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