For the Grandchild Who Reads Under the Covers
A Christmas gift for the grandchild who loves to read.
Every family has one. The reader at the dinner table. The one who finishes the series before you've finished wrapping it, and kindly corrects you about chapter twelve.
This is for you, the grandparent of that reader. If you're hunting for a holiday gift that isn't another toy, this one is worth a look.
A book that asks back
Untold Wonderland is Alice's Wonderland, retold. It doesn't start down a rabbit hole. It starts in a corn maze, with a path that forks and the feeling that something is watching from the next row.
From there, your reader decides what happens next. Follow the stranger, or the sound of water? And the book remembers what they chose. A kindness early on can come back chapters later. A shortcut has a cost.
It's a real novel, written with care: 42 chapters and more than 300 pen-and-ink illustrations. Hard words stay in, and a reader can tap one to read it or hear it. When tired eyes need a rest, the storytellers Sable and Whit will read a page aloud.
No ads. No chat. Nobody to talk to but the people in the book.
See for yourself. Try the first pages now.
Something to talk about at dinner
After each chapter, the parent gets a letter called The Wonderland Herald. It's a little newspaper from Wonderland, with how much was read and a few questions only the reader can answer. It gives the whole family a reason to ask about the book all year.
A sample Herald, from Chapter One:
THE WONDERLAND HERALD
Somebody has come through. The first since eighteen sixty-five.
Reading days: 5 · Time reading: 1 hour 13 minutes · Pages explored: 35
Nobody has come through from over there since Alice, in eighteen sixty-five, and it has been long enough that a good many here count Alice as folklore. Reported by Clara Bell.
Unsolicited, from Chess. I can confirm that someone is coming to Wonderland. I will neither confirm nor deny any pushing or slipping.
Stilz, for the file. I think it is cheating when a cat smiles in the corn and nobody in the report mentions the cat.
A white rabbit in a coat dropped something that was not theirs to pick up. Ask your reader what they did with it.
At the very end there was a choice: reach for the blue, back away, or shout for the friend they came in with. Ask your reader which one they took.
How the gift works
- You pay once. Nothing renews on your card.
- An unopened gift never expires. Buy it now and tuck it away for the holidays.
- Their year starts the day they activate it, not the day you buy it.
- A parent opens the gift and sets up the account, so the grown-ups stay in charge.
You can give Solo for one reader, or Family for up to six readers in the household.
A membership opens the whole library. It's small today: Book One, with another world in the works. Everything we add while you're a member is yours to read.
Questions about gifting? See how gift memberships work.
Give it as a gift Try the first pages
Before you go
Chess: Most books stay politely on the page. Stilz: I've always admired that about them. Chess: This one takes you by the sleeve and walks you into the maze. And it remembers every turn. Stilz: Fine. Hold the door. But tell them to wipe their feet.