The Lost Wonderland Diaries by J. Scott Savage is a fun story if you are a fan of Alice in Wonderland. This story follows Celia and Tyrus who have found the Lost Diaries of none other than Lewis Caroll, who had written the classic story we all love. They soon find themselves in a fantasy world with a white rabbit and in wonderland. But, this isnt the wonderland we know, its now filled with darkness and our beloved characters from wonderland are not what we remember from the original classic. Don't worry though we will recognize our favorite characters, who are still crazy and senical to the original story. We meet new characters along the way, there are some riddles to be solved and characters who bring danger. I can't wait to read more!

I have received an e-arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another delightful middle grade fantasy by J. Scott Savage set in the world of Wonderland. The kids will have to solve riddles, puzzles, and of course the Queen of Hearts. I'm not a fan of Wonderland, but this book was still enjoyable for me.

I received an ARC from the publisher.

This is a fun story if you are an Alice in Wonderland fan. This story follows Celia and Tyrus who have found the Lost Diaries of Lewis Carroll who had written the classic story. They find themselves in a fantasy world alongside the White Rabbit and a changed Wonderland. It is a world of darkness now and some classic characters are not what we remember from the original story. During this story, we meet characters we know from the original story and some new characters too. There will be characters that help solve riddles while some characters bring danger. Will they help Wonderland or be trapped there forever?

I can’t believe I waited so long to read this book! It was fantastic! The characters were engaging, believable, and relatable! And the residents of Wonderland were perfectly executed! Lewis Carroll would recognize all his creations. They were just crazy enough and sensical enough to be in the original story! It was scary and exciting, funny and serious, crazy and logical. I couldn’t put it down! It makes me want to go back and read the original stories that inspired it and I will definitely be reading any sequels! I may even have to add it to my personal collection.

I wanted this book to be so much more than it was! I am a big Alice in Wonderland fan and I love middle grade fantasy but this book was missing a little bit of a spark. Will still recommend this book to kids who like fantasy novels, but not as widely as I hoped.

It need a bit of editing, and some was a bit meh and boring.
But i did enjoy getting to know the characters even though the main characters were a bit boring.

This book was a wonderful combination of adventure story, the usefulness of math, and the thrill of solving puzzles, all with the help of a few friends gathered along the way.

Celia and Tyrus are very different, almost opposites. Tyrus loves to read, and has a great imagination. Celia has dyslexia and hates to read, but loves math and thinks very logically. What they have in common is being picked on for their differences. Just after Celia and Tyrus meet, they discover the lost journals of Lewis Carroll. They discover that not only is Wonderland real, but it’s in danger. Can they save Wonderland? Fun story full of puzzles and challenges for both logic and imagination.

This book is the PERFECT Alice in Wonderland inspired middle grade novel I've had the pleasure to read.

This was a lovely re-exploration of Wonderland, a place so many of us think we know but in this book there's so much more to discover. I liked that both main characters had depth to them, and were not cookie-cutter kids. Very enjoyable.

A contemporary update of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Fun, fast paced and relevant. The changes to some of the characters make for a fresh story. It also helped the writer add important life lessons into the storyline, like apologizing when you hurt someone (intentionally or unintentionally.)

Sweet relatable characters are set into the familiar framework of Lewis Carrol's Wonderland and their adventure is fun and perfect for middle grade kids who feel less than perfect. A fun read sure to delight.

4.5 stars, just because no one takes 5-star reviews seriously.

This story is adorable. I may be biased, coming to it with a love of the Wonderland stories, but then again, one of my least favorite things is when a modern author takes a perfectly good classic and tries to reinvent it, and then RUINS it for a new generation of readers. If you're going to mess with the best, you had better be a master.

Savage clearly *gets* Wonderland. We don't shy away from the weirdness for even a second -- in fact, he seems to revel in it; however, he also pulls in Carroll's own mathematical background, providing a surprisingly solid, logical foundation on which to build a lot of Wonderland's bizarre mechanisms. This book took the utterly unfathomable wildness I typically think of and made it, in some ways, make sense. I liked that, but I also hated it. But mostly I liked it. Why <i>is</i> a raven like a writing desk?

And I can't stress my fondness for the two protagonists enough (although is Tyrus an antagonist? I can't decide). Tyrus's unapologetic acceptance of himself contrasted with Celia's pain and discontent tugged on my heartstrings, and I know their feelings and internal struggles resonated with a lot of my young readers. These two are real and believable, from their differing gifts, abilities, and challenges, to their sometimes fraught friendship, to their panic and also resourcefulness in the face of everything Wonderland throws at them.

It's been several months since I actually read this, and I would like to mention specifics that I loved, but I'll need to go back and re-read. I do know when that warm, delighted feeling fills me up when I think of a book, it's worth a share.

Highly recommend both to lovers of Alice in Wonderland and to younger readers who may not be familiar with the originals; this could be a fun way to introduce a reluctant classic consumer to that world.

I go into any retelling with bated breath and a lot of leeway.

J. Scott Savage did a fantastic job with creating a world that is similar to Carrolls. The same verbiage that Carroll uses makes or breaks a Alice in Wonderland retelling.

I loved the words, I loved the world, and I love the word play, the riddles, and characters. The MC was a very relatable young lady. She has dyslexia, which is something that is almost never talked about in books and I really enjoyed how Savage wrote her and the ways she is able to help herself with her disability.

We will definitely read this book in our book club!

Celia and Tyrus are both library nerds - Tyrus because he loves to read and Celia because her mom is the new librarian in town. The two strike up a fast and sure friendship and Celia reveals to him her personal issue ... she's dyslexic. Most people don't understand what that means and she's usually assumed to be, at best, stupid and at worst, carrying a disease. Tyrus is the first person who really seems to get Celia.

In their new-found friendship, they find that they share a love of the works of Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) and Tyrus informs Celia that Charles Dodgson kept diaries his whole life but after his death, his family discovered that four of the diaries were missing. Celia admits that she's actually related to Dodgson - his great, great, many great grand-niece.

Going through a collection of old books in a box belonging to Celia's family, they come across four leather-bound books. With awe, Tyrus announces that he believes they are Dodgson's missing diaries. But more importantly, while going through one of them, Celia and Tyrus become transported into Wonderland.

But the Wonderland that Lewis Carroll wrote about has changed. Many of the characters are still there, but some have become ruthless monsters and Tyrus and Celia want only to return to their home. They will have to solve many riddles and puzzles and avoid being beheaded by the Queen of Hearts and they still may not find the secrets that will get them home.

I've long been a fan of the Alice in Wonderlands books and I'm a sucker for anything related to the books, but at the same time I am hesitant to read anything in this universe because it's not likely to live up to the original. J. Scott Savage's tale is a worthy offering, helped by the fact that this isn't Alice returning.

The math involved here is cleverly done and quite appropriate for the story and as a young reader adventure story, this is quite enjoyable.

As a "Wonderland" story...? This is clever and fitting in many ways, but it lacks the magic and spark of the originals. The darker nature of some of the much-loved original characters really doesn't work as well as it should. The original Alice's characters were pretty dark on their own without giving them some nefarious motives.

This is often the problem when playing in someone else's world - to make it unique means messing with what's already there.

Overall, I enjoyed this and would recommend it as an exciting fantasy for some readers, but it hurts a little bit to recommend it as an Alice in Wonderland adventure.

Looking for a good book? The Lost Wonderland Diaries by J. Scott Savage takes readers back to Wonderland with two new young human guides, but it's not the Wonderland we left when we closed Lewis Carroll's books.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Shadow Mountain Publishing for my copy of The Lost Wonderland Diaries by J. Scott Savage in exchange for an honest review. It published September 8, 2020.
Wow! What an enjoyable retelling of Lewis Carrol's classic Alice books! I loved the way everything was off-kilter, but stayed true to the story itself. I also loved that there was a dyslexic character and that it was really portrayed in an honest way. I have someone close to me with dyslexia, and the way Celia experiences it seems pretty similar to this person, and the social implications as well.
I also loved the character growth and development, reading about the challenges, failures and triumphs along the way.
I think any Alice fan should definitely add this to their list!

Celia just wants to pass her time in the shadows and not bring attention to her learning disability. When she is stuck at the library, she stumbles into a new friend and a gateway to the infamous Wonderland. But something is wrong with Wonderland and all the residences, will Celia be able to help restore the wonderful chaos? The Lost Wonderland Diaries breathes new imagination and wonder into the classic tale of Alice and Wonderland. All of the classic characters are present, such as The Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat but Savage goes one step further to reimagine how time would have affected them. Celia and Tyrus are amazing protagonist and counter balance each other, which will have a wide range of appeal. Celia's growth throughout the book is a pleasure to read and her character as a whole is dull of depth and dimension. This story brought more understanding of wonderland and other chaotic aspects that are not in the original but could have been. The further exploration of Lewis Carrol was also a pleasant surprise , giving both new and old readers a new look on a beloved author.

I looked at this one more for myself. I am obsessed with anything Alice in Wonderland but oddly don't like the original. This is such a cute story. I love the writing and the atmosphere. Well done!

This is a complex effort to weave a new story through Alice's adventures. The premise and main characters were strengths. However, without a deep, deep knowledge and understanding of Alice in Wonderland and Carroll's world, this story is too weighed down by overly detailed references. I really wanted to like this book, but the well-intentioned attempt to align with Carroll's work (content and style) just made it confusing and terribly hard to enjoy. Readers who have read Carroll closely and repeatedly would no doubt get more out of this one than I did.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

The Lost Wonderland Diaries is possibly one of the best re-telling/follow on stories of the Alice in Wonderland books.
When I came across this book on netgalley I jumped at the chance to read and review it, especially with Alice in Wonderland being one of my all time favourite books. I was not disappointed! This book sucks you in from the first page to the final sentence.
This book shows an undoubted level of knowledge and understanding by the author about Lewis Carroll and the wonderland story. J Scott Savage has an incredible talent with the same kind of word play, number play, rhymes and riddles as Lewis Carroll and really makes you feel it is written by non other than him too!
Such an incredible book that has made me fall even more in love with Alice in wonderland.