In the past three years, Brookline residents have traveled to China, traced the tracks of the Underground Railroad — in which the town participated — and relived the toughest battles of the Civil War, all within the safe and comfortable confines of a trusty couch or armchair. And this coming month, the Brookline Public Library will devote time to indulging in tea parties and croquet matches as part of its Brookline Reads initiative, focusing on Lewis Carroll’s famous children’s book Alice in Wonderland.

Residents will be invited to attend panel discussions about famous cartoons, watch films related to the book and, most importantly, read and discuss the book itself. Gary Wolf, the creator of cartoon character Roger Rabbit, will take part in a panel discussion April 24 on the language of fantasy with writer and Tufts University professor Marcie Hershman.

They will use Alice in Wonderland as a starting point for the discussion, which will likely venture into discussion about mature books.

And as the Duchess says in the book, “Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.”

Far from being just a children’s story, the novel applies to adult themes that were relevant during the author’s time and today, Wolf said.

“It is full of character and rhyme, reason and nonsense, and it also gives us a picture to put up against what is going on today,” he said. “You can read into it different things — political messages [and] social satire messages — or you can take it as a good straight-ahead story for children that works on all different levels.”

Wolf said though the book is worth discussing on an adult level, it was one of his favorite books as a child and said its themes continue to appear in his everyday life as he ages.

Librarian Cindy Battis said it is important to choose a book that is available to readers in many different languages and formats.

“It is a book that everyone could read, from age three to 103,” she said.

Hershman said she and Wolf will focus the discussion on relating Alice in Wonderland to the present and possibly present new interpretations of the book that will not “just evaporate.”

“[Alice in Wonderland] is a big enough world that it can encompass a lot of conversation,” Hershman said.