Storytelling Week 12: Queen's Croquet Invitational

"Hello folks! This is Bill the Lizard."

"And I am the White Rabbit! Thanks for joining us today on Wonderland Sports! Today is quite a day in the history of Wonderland. It is the Queen's 10th Croquet Invitational. Can you believe it has been ten years already Bill?"

"No I can't Rabbit! It really must've flown by for you! You are always having to run around because you are always late!"

"Ha ha! Ain't that the truth Bill? You try having twenty kids at home and see if you are ever on time."

"I would need a Mrs. first! Anyway, we have quite a group of people playing in today's tournament. Who all is in the line up Rabbit?"

"We have got the King and Queen of course, most of the royal court has made it as well. Jack unfortunately will not be able to make it, he is off on some vacation with a dancing flower. I guess it is our loss but his gain! There is also a new contestant on the scene, her name is Alice. She was only invited to this an hour ago. It will be interesting to see what she can do. I bet she has never played a game of croquet quite like this!"

"I am sure your are right Rabbit! I mean honestly who else plays the game like this? As far as I know this is the only tournament that plays in the unique conditions. It just makes it more special. For those of you that have seen one of the Queen's tournaments, you know exactly what I mean. For those who are watching this for the first time, you are in for quite a treat! Instead of a mallet they use a flamingo. Yes you did hear correctly, flamingos. It is an extra challenge for the contestants. They have to find a way to straighten out the flamingo and have enough control over it to hit their hedgehog. Yet again, you are not crazy. They use a hedgehog as their ball. As you can imagine that makes the task even harder. I have seen competitors hit their hedge hogs perfectly, gain about five yards, then their hedgehog decides it wants to run in the opposite direction for ten yards."

Flamingo via Deviantart 

"The real question, Bill, is who is going to win this year? The Queen invented the game, so we can expect her to be a front runner in the competition. I wonder if she will score more points than the amount of people she will behead in the tournament."

"I am sure that will be a close call Rabbit! Queen, if you are watching this, we do not mean any of this to be disrespectful in anyway. Please let me keep my head, my neck has grown quite attached to it!"

"Ha ha good one Bill! In all seriousness, we do wish the Queen the best of luck in her tournament today."

Author's Note: I chose to write my story based off of the Queen's Croquet-Ground from the Alice in Wonderland unit. I thought it would be nice to write about the game itself from a sports commentator point of view.

Bibliography: Queen's Croquet-Ground from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865).

Reading Diary Week 12: Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland Unit

Mad Tea Party

Why is a raven like a writing desk? I would surely like to know! I really liked the story of the mad tea party. It was similar to what I was expecting, but more. There were more riddles and stories, but there was no unbirthday parties. I found that slightly unfortunate. I really liked how they talked about time and the crazy watch that only tells what year it is. I wish there was more description to how these characters looked because all I can really picture is the disney versions. 

Queen's Croquet Ground

Painting the roses red! I like how it said the queen couldn't tell who the gardeners were because they were all on their bellies and everyones backs look the same. I honestly had not thought of it. I wonder what the queen's deal is with beheading? That is her favorite punishment and she seems to do it a lot. I love how the queen is portrayed. You can feel the power she has over everyone. I loved the part where they are arguing over whether or not you can behead the Cheshire Cat. Considering it is only a floating head, I would have to agree with the executioner- you cannot chop of a head without a body to detach it from.

Who Stole the Tarts?

When I read -""Write that down," the King said to the jury, and the jury eagerly wrote down all three dates on their slates, and then they added them up and reduced the answer to shillings and pence." - all I could think about was how that sounded like a word problem in math. I really hated word problems.