through the looking glass is a children fiction but how does it capture adult attention?

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found
There is a children's book, but its themes and settings -- a mirror image of
Alice in Wonderland which is based on a chess game -- appeal to the
thought processes of adults.

Because the story is based on
a game of chess, it would actually require an adult mindset to fully comprehend the
references to each character as a chess piece. For example, the Red Queen is
breathtakingly fast, representing the agility and relative freedom of movement of queen
as a chess piece. Likewise, other characters move in a (somewhat) corresponding manner
as the chess pieces they represent.

The chess theme also
lends itself to political implications, with Alice being used as a pawn in the giant
game. Adults understand this concept, but children typically do
not.