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Alice and the Cheshire Cat lock eyes beneath a big old tree. Download the free PDF and color this classic storybook moment with a detailed forest scene.
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Download PDFPrintLong-haired girl in a dress and apron beside a tree, a grinning striped cat on a branch, mushrooms and grass below.
Use strong contrast for the cat's stripes and softer greens for the woods.
Read a chapter of the book and draw another character you meet there.
Lewis Carroll was the pen name of the English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
Alice and the Cheshire Cat share one of the best-known conversations in children's literature. Both come from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the 1865 novel by Lewis Carroll, where the grinning cat turns up unexpectedly, offers baffling advice and then vanishes.
Everything about this character is built around that smile. In one memorable scene, the cat fades away slowly, starting with its tail, until only the grin is left hanging in the air. Alice remarks that she has often seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat. It is a perfect example of the book's playful nonsense.
When Alice asks which way she should go, the cat replies that it depends on where she wants to get to. If she does not much care, then it does not much matter. Readers still quote that exchange, because the silly logic hides a neat point about having a goal. The cat also cheerfully informs her that everyone in Wonderland is mad, and that includes the two of them.
The name has a history of its own. Before the book appeared, English speakers already had a saying about someone who was grinning like a Cheshire cat, after a county in northwest England. No one is certain how the phrase began, and there are several competing theories. It was Carroll who turned an old expression into a character known around the world.
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