Fans of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass are preparing for a special day of events in Oxford.

Alice's Day, on Saturday, July 7, organised by The Story Museum, is celebrating the characters created by Lewis Carroll, the Christ Church tutor, whose real name was Charles Dodgson.

He conjured up the weird and wacky world of Alice as he travelled along the River Thames from Oxford's Folly Bridge to Godstow with Alice Liddell, the real-life child who inspired his enduringly popular stories.

Conceived 145 years ago, the book was a turning point in children's literature, celebrating for the first time a child's view of the world, where children are sensible and grown-ups are badly behaved.

Kim Pickin, chief executive of The Story Museum, the organisation coordinating the day in conjunction with Oxford Inspires, which is running this year's county millennium celebrations, said: "It is all about kids having fun with books and stories."

Catherine Nightingale, a spokesman for Oxford Inspires, added: "It's a very good programme of events and provides a great opportunity to see some Alice treasures that are not normally accessible to the general public. It's a real family day with 30 organisations, firms and Alice specialists taking part. They will have a marquee at The Perch pub in Binsey, which is still going to be involved in the celebrations, despite the fire there recently."

The day kicks off in Parks Road, Oxford, with a jazz band, a croquet game on stilts, jam tarts and storytelling, and closes with a tea party and more music at Binsey.

Lewis Carroll experts will be on hand to explain the significance of the dodo, the remains of which you can see in the University Museum of Natural History - or why the first edition of Alice was suppressed.

For Alice fans, there will be plenty to challenge and amaze, from doodles by Alice Liddell's father, on show in the Ashmolean Museum, to surrealist illustrations by Salvador Dali at the University Museum of Natural History.

The Bodleian Library in Oxford is also opening its doors to let people see rare editions of the books. The organisers hope that Alice's Day will inspire children, and grown-ups, to read or listen to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or fire their imaginations so they create their own stories.

Alice-related events are also taking place outside Oxford.

These include an Alice's Day in Goring Library on July 7, and on July 26 and 28 at 3pm at Sunningwell village pond, there will be an opera pantomime.