by Yumiko Tezuka
on July 2016
Pages: 72
Beautifully illustrated story of Alice in the Mirror Kingdom.
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The Coloring Book – Alice in Wonderland Video Review
I hope you enjoyed the video review of the Japanese coloring book, The Coloring Book – Alice in Wonderland
The Coloring Book – Alice in Wonderland Review
As regular readers will know, I adore Alice in Wonderland. It’s my favorite fairy tale of all time. I have so many Alice in Wonderland Coloring Books and I’ll never stop buying them because …. I love Alice 🙂 One day I will collect them all into a pile and try and work out which one I have the most love for. When I do, I am pretty sure that this Alice in Wonderland Fairy Tale Coloring Book will be close to the top of the list, if not the favorite. I know that there are some readers that do not love Alice (I have heard the rumors 🙂 ). If that is the case, then surprisingly, you may actually like this book. Alice is only a minor character and only makes cameo appearances in this quirky Alice-inspired coloring book.
Cover & Layout
The colored fold-out dust jacket on Alice in Wonderland Coloring Book features a colored image of Alice by a dresser laden with goods including balls of wool, books, and cute flowers. You will also see a black rabbit picture and a doll with a crown next to a hearts playing card. This illustration is also in the book for you to color in and enjoy as well. The blue border that surrounds this image is exactly the shade of blue that I always imagine Alice’s dress to be. The image is presented as a picture that is slotted within a frame used in scrapbooking or photo albums. The blue color has also been used on the spine that has text solely in Japanese on it.
On the back cover of the dust jacket, there is an adorable partially colored house featuring a garland of decorated eggs above it from the Egg Tree. This cute image is also included in the book as line art.
On each of the fold-out flaps of the dust jacket is a colored image. A young girl carrying flowers at the front, presumably Alice without her usual outfit and a cute little bunny at the end.
The gloss card cover that contains the book features the imagery from the dust jacket as line art for you to color in.
The coloring book of Alice in Wonderland measures 25cm x 25cm approximately.
Ancillary Pages
The book opens with a title page that the text is surrounded by an elaborate wreath of flowers. A partially hidden message card reads “for you”. This Wreath of Gift is also printed a few pages over sans title for you to color in. This is a great place for you to test out your mediums.
A two-page Introduction follows with flowers drifting behind the young girl as she progresses into the story. Text is printed on one page in Japanese.
As we often see in Japanese and Korean coloring books the imagery is used to start and conclude a coloring book. In this one, a beautifully decorated door and the text in English denotes the “Entrance of the Story”. Two lovely floral wreaths with a “for you” message card follow before we move into the quirky world of Alice.
There are 6 pages of visual thumbnails at the end of the book which have been labeled.
Layout
Illustrations are printed on both sides of the cool white, good quality, medium-weight paper. The paper has a light texture to it making it useful for pencils.
Most of the illustrations are orientated portrait style but there is a double-page spread that is orientated landscape style.
Throughout the book, you will find 28 pages of double-page scenes. Initially, the bookbinding is quite tough to relax, but once I flexed my muscles I was able to push the binding down so it lays down now very well.
The illustrations in this book, particularly with the double-page scenes have generally been positioned very well. Care has been taken to ensure that the area, for the most part, near the spine is avoided with lien art for ease of coloring.
The Coloring Book – Alice in Wonderland Images & Illustrations
Even colorists that do not share my love of Alice I am sure will like this book. It is filled with cute and quirky illustrations and only a few truly “Alice” illustrations.
You can enjoy coloring the carousel horses in the Dream of A Merry Go Round or wander into the Forest of Mushroom, admire the cute little bunnies in the Clockwork Rabbit Herb Garden, or color the cute Villas in the Small Garden atop a tortoise and a snail. There’s also the chance to attend the Mad Tea Party or watch the costumed rabbits do the Marionette Dance.
There is a flamingo tree and an Egg Tree to color when you have visited the Knick Knack Store of a Sheep. There are pieces from Alice’s Chess set and a Garden of Talking flowers.
One of my favorite illustrations is the double-page scene of cakes from the Pastry Brothers Sweet Party. You will also find cute cats throughout the book as well as other animals including sheep, hedgehogs, and of course, rabbits (not the white one though).
Fans of coloring gemstones will love the two pages from the Queen’s jewelry bo and if you like underwater scenes you may enjoy coloring the bottom of the pond.
The line art is black and crisp and a medium eight with fine lines and texture added to the drawings.
Colorists that have minor visual impairment may be challenged with the amount of detail in each drawing. Whilst there are some images with large open spaces within them, the bulk of the imagery does have a lot of detail. It may be a book worthy of using your magnifying lamp on if you have one or just coloring a small area at a time.
If you love doing backgrounds, you will find that there are several pages that would look even better with some background pizzazz.
Bonus
As we often expect from Japanese coloring books there is a little treat at the end. Printed on beige cards there are 4 little message tags for you to cut out and color in. The tags are not perforated but a guideline has been provided.
Where to buy The Coloring Book – Alice in Wonderland
Happy coloring x
Lea
Oh, this one is so cute! I “need” to add it to my collection. (I purchased the second one by Amily Shen recently-I believe you reviewed it, and while I thought that one would be my most favorite, what I’ve seen of this one might make me rethink that).
You’re so bad for my bank balance. Lol. But your site long ago became one of those “must view daily” pages, and I just can’t keep myself from checking for a new review or post.
It is gorgeous! I think it may be my fave Alice book but will have to collect them all in a pile and see! You are in luck, I have massive computer problems at the moment (currently using hubby’s) so I may be a bit quiet for a few days while I get that sorted 🙂 That should help your bank balance as all the reviews are on my slightly dead at the moment, computer 🙂 Happy coloring x
Ah, well, I can live without reviews for a few days. Perhaps you can have a short, well deserved break for a few days (or weeks). After all, unless you tell us, we’ll never know if the computer just got fixed or got fixed many days ago and you were still enjoying your break!
If only! Luckily I had my old computer so I’ve just got it from storage so I can export all my passwords and bookmarks that didn’t come across on the restore 🙁 When you have 10 years of stuff to restore it’s a nightmare …which I wish would finish soon. I won’t tell you how long it took me to remember my social media passwords and this site’s details lol 🙂 I’m sending you an email about your other comment later tonight. Happy coloring x
Definitely on my list
Ty Lea
Connie
I’ll have to get them all out …but I think this may be my favorite Alice book. But then again, I love them all lol! Happy coloring x
Let me know if you find it…haha
Sute you have 100s
I don’t think I have 100 Alice in Wonderland books but I certainly would like to have lol! I need to rearrange things in my office again … I’m out of space again 🙁 Hopefully I can locate them all and see which one I love the most. I suspect I will have trouble deciding that lol!
Ty Lea for thr replies…you sre so kind to put up with an old lady like me.
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lol your comments are one of the highlights of my day x Happy coloring x
Nooo.i meant 10+ books altogether but even that is probably an underestimate. I probably have 100+…lol
Ttyl Lea
My best
I love books! Before coloring books I collected recipe books (I have more of those than coloring books lol) You can never have too many books imo 🙂 Happy coloring x