Mathematician Charles Dodgson's love of play and his need for rules came together in his use of popular games as part of the structure of the two famous children's books, "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass," he wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The author of this article looks at the interplay between the playing of such games as croquet and cards and the characters and events of the novels and argues that, when reading Carroll (who took a playful approach even in his academic texts), it is helpful to understand games and game play.