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Member since:08.10.2003
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Could you imagine sitting down one day and thinking to yourself, I know, I'm going to write a story about a boy with nothing but his family who suddenly becomes the luckiest, happiest boy in the world, all because of a bar of chocolate? No, me neither, but this is exactly what the fantastic Roald Dahl must have done when he chose to write of the adventures of Charlie Bucket!
As Roald Dahl himself once said, 'The job of a children's writer is to try to write a book that is so exciting and fast and wonderful that the child falls in love with it.' This is EXACTLY what happens in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
You see Charlie Bucket is just a normal boy, living with his parents (and four grandparents who happen to have stayed in bed for twenty years), going to school and loving chocolate. The only difference being that his family are devastatingly poor. They live in a run down wooden hut near the outskirts
of town eating cabbage soup and their grandparents spend their days telling little Charlie of the great Mr Willy Wonka, the greatest, most brilliant chocolate inventor of all time.
When the announcement is made that five golden tickets have been hidden in five Wonka chocolate bars giving five lucky children the chance of a guided tour round the factory that no one has entered for nearly twenty years, the whole family knows that Charlie, who can afford only one bar of chocolate a year on his birthday hasn't really got a chance. Indeed, his birthday chocolate bar yields nothing. It isn't until the other four tickets are found and Charlie discovers fifty pence in the gutter that he strikes gold, literally!
After much jubilation amongst his family, it is decided that Grandpa Joe, having made a miraculous recovery upon the news of Charlie's success should accompany Charlie to Mr Wonka's magical factory the very next day. Here he meets the eccentric and somewhat sinister character for himself as well as the four other lucky, but incredibly greedy, spoilt and rude, winners, Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde and Mike Teavee.
And so the tour commences, as does the real fun. As the characters find out about incredible, fantastical inventions such as everlasting gobstoppers and square biscuits that look round, not to mention a meadow and river that are entirely edible, four of the five give in to the temptations surrounding them with disastrous consequences! Children sucked up huge pipes to fudge rooms, turned into giant blueberries, thrown down rubbish chutes by squirrels and shrunk after being sent by television. Sticky ends you couldn't even dream of! Eventually only little Charlie is left to claim the huge mystery prize.
This book simply transports children to a sweet-filled world full of surprises, ridiculous ideas and of course the hilariously quirky Mr Wonka. It is however far more than just a good fun-packed story. Morals are woven throughout, and there is a slightly sinister element to the whole thing that only older readers can pick up on. The book is filled with witty comments aimed at adults and children. Sarcasm, irony or just obvious humour, you name it, it's in there somewhere!
I have read this book at least five times now, probably first at the age of about seven or eight, but now ten years down the line, I love it just as much and know that even my parents appreciate Dahl's masterpiece. It's the type of book that makes me look forward to having children to read it too, just so I can see the expressions on their faces at the talk of 'Hornswogglers' and 'Snozzwangers'! (Incidentally these are the great beasts that tried to destroy the Oompa Loompas who make up Mr Wonka's secret workforce.)
First Published in Great Britain in 1967, this book is available in a huge number of different versions and even languages, obviously with a huge range of prices to match! The Puffin version is available on amazon.co.uk at £4.79 (ISBN 0141311304) although, given the status of this book, I doubt you would have much trouble getting a copy at any bookshop in Britain!
This book truly is iconic, for children of all ages, and if you haven't read it yet then what's stopping you? 'It's all nonsense, every bit of it' to quote Mr Wonka, and perhaps this is true, but hilarious, eccentric and utterly mad nonsense that deserves to be read.
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This is one of my favourite books too. And I think both the films were great - especially the oompa loompas x
AnitaM 25.08.2005 21:18
I always looked foward to reading it to my own children too, and we just finished it with my eldest child yesterday. Today we've started on Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
tutu422 31.07.2005 00:55
My daughter has just been to see the new film. I like to keep the memory of the original. You cant beat the book though! Susy
Advantages: ideal kids book if you end up reading to them- its fairly short. and wicked Disadvantages: movie memories may cloud the imagination. minor point though
very helpful by (100%):
