Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are definitely famous for their fantastical worlds, characters, and plot points. We can't blame anyone for getting a bit caught up in all the absurdity, what with the Mad Hatter, Humpty Dumpty, and walking chess pieces running around. Your students might find it difficult to get past all this trippy imagery at first. (Or at least their preconceived notions of Johnny Depp and Walt Disney.)

One of the difficulties in teaching these novels might be convincing older students—who may view them as children's stories—that they're actually really worth reading carefully and analyzing. You might think about incorporating some seriouslit-crit to show them that many academic heavies take these novels seriously.