A Wonderlandiful World
Duchess is talking about a field trip. Lizzie has no idea what trip she’s going on about and gets her to tell her it’s a Winds trip. Duchess continues to talk but Lizzie cuts her off and says she thinks she hears a hedgehog in trouble.
Through her magic door, Lizzie is transported to “The Wonderland Grove”. She hears a squeal and finds Shuffle dangling from the roof by his paw. So, she gets him down. A trio of birds find her and then Apple White (who sent them). She said she’s been looking for her to invite her to join an opportunity but before she can say what it is Lizzie tells her she’s busy. Apple compliments her garden and says people might have the wrong idea that she’s loud and imperious. Which makes Lizzie happy because this means she’s on the right track of being like her mother. But Apple just as easily offends her by calling her soft-hearted.
Apple also comments on her hedgehogs. Lizzie says they make great weapons and picks on up and throws it (which astonishes Apple). Only she doesn’t know how touch Wonderland hedgehogs are. Apple says Headmaster Grimm wants the Royal Student Council to meet, but when she tries to follow Lizzie through her magic (heart shaped) door, Lizzie says she’ll meet her there. Lizzie yells at the Headmaster to tell her what’s going on and The Headmaster says they’ll be preforming the play “The Tragedy of Aquilonia” for the North Wind. Only they need a replacement because Briar keeps falling asleep and hasn’t rehearsed.
Raven coaches Cerise and Cedar on a swim practice run. They’re a minute ahead of the best recorded time. Cerise wonders where Sparrow is but Cedar sees bike tracks and says it looks like he took off. Cedar, Cerise, and Sparrow are supposed to be partners for the Glass Slipper’s annual Tiara-thalon. Dexter runs over looking to race Sparrow but finds out he’s gone and offers his bike. He even offers to represent the team in the race (even tho he’s a Royal. He says the whole controversy is out of control). Cedar asks Raven if she like-likes Dexter but she doesn’t answer and Cedar wonders if he’s because she doesn’t want to say because of her.
Cedar asks Cerise and Raven to come with her to get paints and berries. Raven says sure if Apple doesn’t need her to help with a surprise thing for the field trip. Lizzie doesn’t do good with the play’s choreography but she gets some laughs when she improvises her lines (especially from Daring). Apple compliments her and says her mom would be proud, but she relates to her character and wonders if she’ll ever get back to Wonderland or is she stuck in Ever After for ever after.
Cedar tells Raven the play was so obvious it should have been called “This Story Is A Warning to All Rebels about the Evil Consequences of Not Fulfiling Your Destiny-I’m Looking At You Raven Queen-.” Raven agrees but she’s over it (and him). Cedar becomes upset when Blondie and Briar have a secret but leave her out of it because she’ll blab. While finding black berries to make her own paints a furry, fat, creature attaches itself to her arm. It also likes a foul green gas. Baba Yaga says she thinks it’s a Bandersnatch. Baba Yaga does a spell and it transforms into a baby bear.
While some of the students coo over it, some are weary that it’s dangerous because the mama might be looking for it. Then a mother Bandersnatch comes toward them. (The bear is still attached to Cedar’s arm). Then 14 others appear. Baba Yaga conjures up a cage. Raven rescues Cedar by shooting a spell at the bear and it drops and heads back to its mama. The Headmaster orders the students to go back to EAH.
The Jabborwock gets a scent of “The Card” (Lizzie), “The Cat”, (Kitty) and “The hatter” (Maddie) but before he can get them they vanish. He vows to stalk them until he finds them, squeeze all the wonder from them, and then eat them. After they return from the wishing well, Lizza calls a meeting with Kitty and Maddie. They decide to go to the White Queen for answers of why a Bandersnatch and a jub jub bird were seen in Ever After, but the White Queen is no where to be seen. A meeting is called in Briars room for the Royals and Rebels. Apple and Faybelle blame Raven -as in the bandersnatches were a result of Raven not signing the book-. Cedar jumps to her defense and says Raven was right not to sign the book,
Faybelle says she shouldn’t even be a Rebel. She should want her ending of turning real. Cedar says she has no choice in what she says and nothing is more important to her than having choice. Faybelle says if you don’t care it shouldn’t matter which path you take. A weird thing happens. They see a bunny hopping up a clock and not a mouse. After the meeting, the Wonderlandians are talking a strange thing happens. Kitty and Maddie use normal phrases. Lizzie starts to think that maybe Wonderland is coming to its princess. Maddie suggest they go see Giles Grimm (who lives in a secret room beneth the library).
When they do see him Maddie and Lizzie have a hard time understanding him even tho they’re both frequent in Riddilish. Then POOF! He’s turned into a pile of books. Cedar is painting with a quill but then sticks her finger and it starts to … bleed. She goes to find Maddie but she’s not there. So, she gets Earl Gray to help her find her. There’s a trail of crumbs in Helga and Gus room. Cedar recognizes what’s happening as magic so she goes to find Raven. On the way she feels the building shake and signs of a beating heart.
When she gets to Apple and Raven’s room, Apple has a stem growing out of her head and Raven is squawking. When Cedar and Maddie catch up to each other Raven and Apple have transformed completely. A crocodile appears from no where (coming from the toilet). Maddie has to find Apple in her hat to keep him from eating her. There’s a revolt of some chairs. To escape this Maddie, Cedar, and Lizzie try to hide in the hutling. Then a shard storm hits.
Daring ushers them into the Grimmnasium where the students have taken refuse but the magic has changed them. Ashlyn is now a pair of crystal slippers, Cupid is a heart shaped layer cake, Hunter is a tree with an ax tangled in its leaves, Blondie is a golden lock, Humphrey is a large, brass, egg, Cerise is a wolf cub, Duchess is a black and white checkered cygnet, and Faybelle is a sleigh bell with fairy wings. Grimm makes an announcement that the unaffected students should vacate the school or they’ll be shut in and quarantined. So, they all get everyone into the hutling. (By this point Daring has turned into a furry beast).
They have to leave Hunter and Briar behind (and Daring who stays to protect Briar). But they don’t make it out and are trapped inside Baba Yaga’s barrier. The Narrator is also affected and by the end of the chapter is taking in jibberish. As it gets worse, kitty suggests Maddie be the narrator and she consents. The Jabberwock gives chase to the students. Lizzie saves them (Cedar, Kitty, Maddie) by pushing them through a door that leads to the Grove. The headmaster tells them he’s working on a spell to banish the Jabberwock and hangs up on them. Kitty says the only way they can do that is with the vorpal sword, but the headmaster says the only one is in Wonderland and then says don’t disrupt him again and hangs up on them.
Lizzie starts to get because she’s started to think of the others are friends and she’s frustrated with the situation. She says she’s going to fix *this*. Maddie says someone would understand more and speaks of a book that she’s found that has a letter inside and it’s clear the person is for Wonderland-because of the things they write-. Lizzie writes the letter to the unknown writer for their assistance. Cedar realizes the curse on her is undone when she lies to Lizzie about how her letter sounds.
Cedar gets a letter in her boot. The letter writer says *the vorpal sword is thrust in the left-most bole of the fourth wabe of Tumtum trees. Alas, they cannot send it to you with words. They consulted with an owl, who informed me that with just the right picture, meticulously painted in fluxberry shades, you might be able to pluck it out of Wonderland, though such has never been done.* They need a book from the library so Cedar can draw the sword but they’re still being blocked by the barricade. Cedar says she’ll go in but Lizzie says she’ll go in and get the book. Maddie says since she’s the narrator she should go in with her. Kitty says since she can hear the narrator too, she’ll be the emergency narrator.
Lizzie and Maddie come across strange greeting cards by the library and peas porridge creatures. Lizzie says they need a shrinking potion, but Madeline’s forgot hers. So, Lizzie orders the furniture to make a maze and they pass through. There’s patters on the wall that move and some words-but they vanish-. Maddie is able to finds that the words say you can get to the library if you close your eyes so she and Lizzie do. The library has grown in height since their previous visit. Lizzie remembers her moms advice about things are never lost to you and calls the book to her. They then return to the Grove.
As Lizzie and Madeline proceed to the Grove, Cedar has nearly finished mixing her flux berries. Unfortunately, a creature walking by has eaten the book, but Lizzie has the passage memorized. Cedar starts to paint but she doesn’t quite get it right. Kitty and Lizzie give her the scent of the resin and the feeling of the tree (from Lizzie playing the dulcimer). Lizzie is then able to reach into the painting and retrieve the Vorpal Sword.
The Jabberwock breaks the barrier and starts to take the wonder out of the grove. Lizzie declares it’s off with its head. The Jabberwock (who has the Hatter) is now tying the Hatter to its head and wearing him like a hat. Despite herself, Lizzie starts to feel empathy. She says they’ll free the Hatter and then kill the Jabberwock. With the help of Daring, Lizzie attempts to cut off the Jabberwocky’s head. Cedar is able to free the Hatter and Kitty gets him to safety. Lizzie uses the hedgehogs to poke their quills into the Jabberwocky’s eyes (icicles from her crown). While trying to attack with the Vorpal Sword, Kitty discovers the sword has cut into reality and sees home. Lizzie demands the sword but Kitty says she’ll only give it to her if she uses it to send them home.
Lizzie is able to take off one of the Jabberwock’s paws. A portal opens and the paw is sent to Wonderland. Another paw grows in it’s place instantly. Cedar tries to distract the beast by asking it if it wants to go home. He says he’ll be king there once he gets the sword. Lizzie and Maddie are tugging on the sword and then an impact knocks into Lizzie. She loses control of the sword and it drops into the hole she made. With the help of the hutling bringing the objects ( that use to be the former students) the monster falls into the hole. The hole doesn’t close and the Jabberwock doesn’t fall and he’s caught the sword.
With the help of readers Maddie encourages the readers to think go home Jabberwock. Its pushed back by the voice, the tear widens, and it tumbles through. Maddie says no one hurts her dad and the tear between the worlds closes. The other students are turned back to their normal selves. Cedar turns back to a puppet. After a white light the students loses their memories of the previous events. Only Maddie seems to remember what happened. Ceder and Lizzie, both tell each other they think they’ve dreamed of each other later on and have lunch together. After the race, the students help Lizzie fix her garden.
(This is from the EAH wiki fan page. It’s pretty accurate unlike the rest of the summary on there)* The Chief Chronicler contacts the narrator and Madeline. Madeline misunderstands this and believes she will be banished from the fairytale world after breaking the narration rules. Instead, she is awarded the Golden Gylph, one of the highest honors for narrators. Upon recieving it, Maddie is lifted up by a gust of air that she's only affected by. The gust was a result of narrators everywhere giving her the 'Twenty-One Chapter Salute' which consists of flipping through twenty-one pages of a book, creating a strong wind. The chapter ends by Madeline thanking the Narrator and, in turn, the Narrator wishing Maddie to live Happily Ever After.
My Thoughts:
I don’t think Lizzie needs to worry about being as good a ruler as her mother. I thought she made some really good decisions in this! It was her idea to plant the Grove-to bring a little bit of Wonderland to EAH-. She has the idea to make the furniture to rearrange itself into a maze so they can get out of the library. She also has the idea to call the book to her. I think she was also the one to *show* Cedar what Wonderland felt like (through playing a Wonderland lullabye) than just having it described to her from the pages of a book. I also think she was brave to attempt to use the Vorpal Sword and take down the Jabberwock. That took GUTS! I do think Lizzie needs to drop the off with the head thing. She yells that out at moments in the story that don’t even seem to fit anything. But other than that I think she’ll do just fine as the next Wonderland Queen. I like the cards. They remind me a lot of tarot cards and looking to them for advice-even tho sometimes the advice might take a little time to decipher-.
Cedar also learns something important. Sometimes wanting to be “normal” and thinking you want things that you see other people have that you don’t on closer look might not be all you made it out to me from the outside looking in.
There were also some good snarky comments in this. One from Lizzie to Daring when he says “heart be still” and she tells him if that was the case he’d drop dead at her feet. Another when she tells Apple she finds it hard to believe Duchess didn’t say anything else because she was always saying something. Another from Briar about Bandersnatch perfume being the scent everyone would want if they wanted everyone to stay away.
Then there was a image I really liked. It was when the Jabberwock burns Cedar’s dress and its breath is so hot it turned her dress to the pages of the Pinocchio story. The designer in me is thinking hmm, fairy tale story dresses illustrated with the pages from the story. Not a bad idea at all!
Rating: 6