Lewis Carroll invented snark long before the internet had even been thought of

Tate publishing have just brought out a new edition of The Hunting of the Snark. This is a poetic piece by Lewis Carroll, best remembered for Alice in Wonderland. Like much of his work, it seems to make perfect sense, if you don't listen too carefully. So far, so Gruffalo, right?

Lewis was a writer of 'nonsense', however, and famously peppered his works with made-up words and concepts. This creates very fertile ground for the child such as mine, prone to drifting off and then returning to earth with a hearty, "What does it mean?".

I don't know about your kid, but sitting through a film with mine these days requires more than a modicum of patience. "Why are they doing that?" "What did he just say?" and - in a moment that blows open the fact that she hasn't understood one bit of the plot since five minutes in, "who's that?" - the questions come so thick and fast that what was conceived as a fun family outing fast becomes torture for the adults in the group.

Really, the Snark is more for older children or adults - indeed, looking at the Wikipedia entry on the work, I see that there is some discussion as to whether it was even intended for kids.

Why then am I featuring it on Babygadget? Well, for the same reason that Tate brought it out: to highlight the marvellous illustrations by Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins (I photographed the book on my Moomin teatowel - it seemed fitting). She illustrated the work in 1959, and the pictures have remained unavailable for the past 50 years.

This small volume features eight full-page images and several small text-punctuating ones, and they all show the same joyous pattern, line and character of Jansson's Moomin pictures. In all truth, it is probably this apsect that your kid is going to get most mileage out of, until they are of an age to really enjoy language, to take it apart and reassemble it. This book's staying on my shelf for another three or four years. If your kids are older, go ahead - enjoy!