A very enjoyable tale! This is an Anishinaabe retelling of Alice in Wonderland, with characters from Anishinaabe mythology filling in for the original characters, and touching on Indigenous and gender issues, including bullying and feeling unseen, "invisible." Our protagonist, Aimee, is a non-binary Anishinaabe middle schooler on a school trip to give offerings to the Paayehnsag, water spirits that protect the land. Aimee is distracted by playing games on their phone, and takes a different path than their classmates in the woods, leading them into a Wonderland-ish world filled with beings from Anishinaabe myths. Aimee agrees to help the mythical beings defeat the Evil Queen trying to take their land (mirroring events in Aimee's world), in exchange for them helping Aimee find their way home. Anishinaabe words and phrases are used throughout the story, and there's a helpful glossary at the end of the book, but the text would've benefited from the translations being on the page rather than having to flip back and forth (or waiting till you've finished if reading an e-book version as I did), and pronunciation guides would've been helpful. In fairness, I read a DRC and haven't seen the published book, so that may have changed. Also, I found the ending a little vague, I was left not really knowing if the Wonderland-ish world got the help it needed or not. The illustrations were really nice, I enjoyed the art style and the vibrant colors! Definitely recommended!

#RabbitChase #NetGalley

The beginning of this graphic novel almost made me give up on reading it but I pushed through. I was a little lost with some of the words and found out at the end that there was a section with translations at the end of the book. I wish there had been a note or something at the beginning to indicate that. I did like the artwork and even through the story started off clunky it did get better. I wish it was more fleshed out. Everything seemed very rushed.

📖 Rabbit Chase 🐇 by Elizabeth LaPensée is a graphic novel retelling of Alice in Wonderland ft a non-binary MC and elements from Anishinaabe culture and storytelling. I loved the art and the twisting story.

This book is ideal for curious young readers who love to explore and features an important Indigenous perspective.

I loved the concept of this book - the art style reminds me of the book “Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy” by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo. I’m not versed in Ashinabee culture at all, and it felt jarring — but you know what? This book doesn’t have to be for me. Maybe you’re familiar with Ashinabee folktales and this book will be for you! I loved that Aimee was nonbinary, and I loved their journey through the “rabbit path”. Four stars.

This was a fun and sweet Alice in Wonderland story with an excellent nonbinary main character. Would recommend to younger readers who love fairy tales.

Due to my committee work I am unable to review titles that are eligible to be included on our Great Graphic Novels for Teens list. Please see www.yalsa.com/thehub for a blog post about this title.

This was such a wonderful graphic novel! I loved the representation and the illustrations were lovely. I can't wait to get a physical copy of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I had such high hopes for this book I really did but alas I was let down. The concept for this is solid and should work perfectly but sadly something just didn't fall into place for me. I found what should have been a very fun and exciting book to be boring. Perhaps it was just me and this just isn't for me. I know plenty of people will enjoy this, I just don't think it was for me.

An Indigenous Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? Yes, please!

While on a field trip and feeling isolated, Aimée finds themself following a rabbit into a magical world of Anishinaabe culture and creatures. These traditional stories and characters are beautifully woven with Alice's classic adventures. There's a tea party, too-big and too-small moments, an evil queen and her minions, talking flowers, and more.

I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and I love reading interpretations and stories inspired by the classic. I love that this one focuses on Indigenous culture and gender identity as well as family and fitting in.

Unfortunately, there's just not ENOUGH. The story and characters feel very underdeveloped, and the cool adventures aren't enough to make up for that. I needed to to know more about Aimée OUTSIDE of the magical world in order to care about them IN it. I wanted to more about their family and culture and more about the possible friends hinted at in the story.

Some wonderful elements, but it just needed more substance.

I think it is always great to see adaptations of classics, giving new interpretations and opportunities to the narrative. Thus, I appreciate the way in which the creators merge Native American mythology with Alice in Wonderland. To that end, I also appreciate that the book has a key at the end to teach the meanings of certain words/phrases in a Native American language.
I had only two complaints. One was that the ebook edition, on my phone, was heavily distorted - the pages were short and wide, which made it hard to appreciate the styles of the page layout and the art. That's not a complaint with the art, but rather with how the ebook was made. The second complaint was just that the book was short. I think it would have done well extending the narrative in parts and exploring the characters more.
Overall, it was interesting.

Rabbit Chase by Elizabeth LaPensee, art by KC Oster, and Anishinaabemowin translations by Aarin Dokum, is a middle-grade graphic novel that puts nonbinary Anishinaabe middle-schooler Aimee into an Alice In Wonderland inspired story.

The story offers up an Alice in Wonderland story that is mixed heavily with North American Indigenous history and with Anishinaabe culture in particular. The Queen of Hearts figure is stealing the land in a similar fashion as white governments have done to Indigenous people in North America (and globally) by getting legal land rights through force and deception and manipulating Indigenous people in a court system that wasn't designed to protect them. Those who hold the land already are figures from traditional Anishinaabe stories, like the trickster rabbit who asks Aimee for help. The art style is really enjoyable and cute, and the animals depicted are drawn in a way that pulls from traditional Anishinaabe art. Aimee is a relatable protagonist who deals with school bullies, transphobia and misgendering (definite content warning for this, although it isn't exploitative and makes a fair representation of a difficult subject in my opinion), and feeling like a misfit. Seeing their emotional journey as they go through their literal journey is lovely.

I do really wish the story had been longer. Some of it just happened so fast that I felt like I might have enjoyed it more if there had been more time to explore each of the events, but I also recognise that I'm an adult reader engaging with a children's book, so I'm sure that many readers in the target age group will find the shorter length to be more appealing and enjoyable. Additionally, while there was a translation guide at the end for all of the Anishinaabemowin words used throughout, I do wish that they had put that at the beginning or placed translations of the words at the bottom of each page.

Overall, Rabbit Chase is a cute and fun story that packs a punch with serious subjects but offers them up in a way that can help introduce kids to difficult subjects. The art is just as engaging as the story being told. It also has great nonbinary and Anishinaabe representation.

Honest review from my nine year old daughter:

“ I liked this graphic novel. The characters were relatable and I loved how it was a recreation of Alice in Wonderland. I also enjoyed the illustration work.”

This book wasn’t for me but I loved the art style and my sister quite enjoyed the book and can’t wait to read more in the future.

Hm, this wasn't really my cup of tea but I think it would be a cute little book that I think kids will enjoy! The art style was beautiful and it wasn't hard to read like how it seems to be in some graphic novels.

Look, Alice in Wonderland is not a story that I enjoy. I find all of the different incarnations of it to be pretty terrifying and not a lot of fun, so I was hesitant about a middle grade graphic novel that would have those same elements! And while, yes, Rabbit Chase, is a litttttle scary, it's great at making something old and mostly unenjoyable into a new story full of life. This story follows Aimée, a non-binary Anishinaabe middle-schooler, who wanders away on a school trip and into a different dimension where she encounters the Trickster, a talking rabbit with his own agenda.

I loved the way in which the story naturally incorporates words from the Ojibwe language -- since you have both the story and the illustrations, it helps you learn those words in context (although there's a glossary at the end if you want to check as well). That being said, I feel like I could have used a little more time to get to know Aimée, who is lonely, bullied, and seemingly addicted to their phone. I wanted to get to know their interests since there are only small snippets of their mom and some great video game skills. I'm so excited that there continues to be more stories written by (and in this case, also drawn by!) indigenous authors, and this is a great visual addition.

For kids that enjoyed The Misewa Saga by David A Robertson, this has a lot of similarities, with animals guiding the journeys of the small kids, and a magical new world. It's also great for kids that aren't afraid of a spooky campfire story in the outdoors, and want that feeling wrapped up in a book! The illustrations are colorful and clean, and makes it easy to read and enjoy for even readers that haven't picked up a graphic novel before.

This was awesome! Such important representation and I immensely enjoyed it. There are so many good things happening in the world of children's graphic novels.

An excellent indigenous retelling of Alice In Wonderland. Makes me wish I had grown up on these stories.
I think this will be both a great story for those who already are familiar with the folktales, and a great introduction for those who aren't, perhaps inspiring them to learn more themselves.

A graphic novel of an Anishinaabe child named Aimée who chases after a trickster rabbit into an Alice in Wonderland-inspired world. A great idea for blending native voices into familiar children's fantasy, with clean and simple art to convey the supernatural setting. It's fantastic that the story uses actual Anishinaabe words, but some instances don't have a great context to help readers figure out what their meanings are. One example is when Aimée is worried about the Red Queen-proxy's game and an animal previously not introduced uses a phrase that isn't even responded to, leaving readers to flip to the back of the glossary to discover even a vague idea of the expected tone. Thankfully most of the other words, like addressing people or references to ceremony, have ample context that would better help children absorb their meaning.

Fantastic and compelling retelling of the classic story Alice in Wonderland told from the modern viewpoint of an Anishinaabe nonbinary middle schooler who is bullied at school because of their heritage and gender identity. Aimee, goes off on their own during a trip with other children in the Anishinaabe tribe for a ceremony. The land is being threatened by white developers and Aimee's real life story begins to merge with the strange land they enter. The change in use of colors as the graphic novel progresses added impact to the journey Aimee takes internally as well as how they see themselves and their own impact on the community.

A much needed addition to the graphic novel section and a much needed addition to diversify the voices are children read.

this is a book I will be reading to my kids. It's respectful, thought-provoking and wonderfully Alice in Wonderland. The serious topics of the story weren't glossed over but added to the fun of the book making me smile and pause to think about some of the things that were said. The main characters were so strong and idealistic despite everything thrown at them. I love it.