Japanese portrayals of "Alice" have a characteristic style, often rather stylised and with teenage girls rather than the child that I always imagine Alice to be. Sometimes Alice looks sad or "dark" but I prefer to stick to a more childlike style when I am reading about a child. Do you?

These two colourful postcards by Seiko Kusuda make me feel relaxed and happy; they have a colourful and innocent air about them, and an intricacy that seems very "Japanese" to me.





I also like this - although it's definitely more sophisticated and arty. All these postcards are a kind gift from my friend Yoshi in Tokyo.



I never cease to marvel at the different ways in which Alice is portrayed.

Just to return to Apricot's book (here) I do think this pulls us into a child's world - and I have now received her Fukushima book, which I'm going to feature on my other blog. This contains the drawings of real children, depicting their experiences of the earthquake and tsunami.