Liz Sherwood, one of the Parker auction’s co-chairs read aloud the classic children’s tale ‘Alice in Wonderland’ on January 19, 2017, at 3:10, in the Kovler Family Library. Tucked in the back corner were about twenty seated students and parents, listening attentively to Alice in Wonderland, seated in front of a large auction 2018 poster on an easel in the background.

The event was open to all members of the Parker community, but the audience was filled with mostly junior and senior kindergarten students and parents.

The Lewis Carroll read–aloud was organized and run by the auction co-chairs, Sherwood, Nichole Charfoos, Anne Carroll, and Rose Lizarraga. “Our goal for this event was to promote the auction and get parents excited, but we also wanted to host a community event. Lizarraga, auction co-chair and mother of Calan ‘24 and Chase ‘26, said, “We feel that there are many aspects of community in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ that we can relate back to Parker and the kids.”

Sherwood was previously a first grade teacher and is now a parent of Mack ‘30, and Lousia ‘31. “She is such a perfect person for this,” Lizarraga said. “She does a wonderful job engaging the kids.”

‘Alice in Wonderland,’ written in 1865, tells the story of a young girl named Alice who finds herself falling through a rabbit hole into a whimsical new world. The novel is filled with puns and other plays–on–words that keep adults and children alike on their toes throughout the story. Carroll’s novel, deemed, “one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written” by The Guardian, had an instrumental influence on the fantasy genre. Students at Parker typically read the unabridged novel in 9th grade.

The novel was intended by Carroll to be enthralling to readers of all ages. Thus the entire Parker community was encouraged to attend the read-aloud. “I thought it was super fun,” said second grader Payton Maloney said. “I love the river part— it is so cool.” Throughout the event, the young students screamed or made faces as the story progressed. “Is it a good idea to eat a piece of cake if you don’t know where it came from?” Sherwood said. “No!” said the audience. “It could be poison!” Maloney said. “Exactly, so we aren’t going to take the things from the book and put them into our own lives.” Sherwood said.

The 2018 Alice-themed Parker auction will be held Friday March 9. The auction itself is open to parents and adults in the community, but after completing the second chapter of Alice in Wonderland, Sherwood asked the students to raise their hand if they wanted to come back for the following chapters, and they responded with a resounding yes. So there may be another opportunity in the near future for the entire Parker community to fall through the rabbit hole.