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Betsy
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| Posted: July 18 2012 at 10:27am | IP Logged
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My Brother LOVES Roald Dahl, and has gifted my children with many of his books.
I do not like his books, and question if they should even read them.
I am going through all of my book and really deeply culling out books I know we won't read.
Should I keep them or not? (These copies are just common paperbacks, not really nice copies or anything special)
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JennGM
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I only love a few of his books.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
I'll tolerate James and the Giant Peach
I like those because they illustrate a generally obedient and good-natured child who works with what hardships he has been given. The Charlie books are so clever with their play on words and pointing out the faults of children and doting parents of today's society, etc. We just finishing listening to these. AGAIN.
But that's all I allow to read. I generally dislike his view of adults and the child's skeptical attitude of the adults.
I wouldn't keep the others.
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CatholicMommy
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I'm with Jennifer. I like the Charlie books; it's been a while since I've read James so I don't remember much except the general of impression of "how odd". I read others when I was a child, and the fact that I don't remember them or purposely seek them for my son, suggests that I apparently did not like them ;)
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: July 18 2012 at 11:47am | IP Logged
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I guess I am the odd man out. I loved his books as a child and have loved sharing them with my sons. In particular, Matilda and The Witches are favorites.
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Betsy
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| Posted: July 18 2012 at 3:06pm | IP Logged
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Krista, don't apologize. My Brother LOVES all of this books. 
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Since it seems a lot of personal preference you might try reading one to your kids and seeing what they think. 
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SeaStar
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I don't know.... his stories creep me out a bit, even the Charlie ones. I remember as a kid being shocked and very upset at how James was treated at the beginning of James and the Giant Peach. It still gives me a bad feeling.
I would say read what you like. If you like them, enjoy them. If not, pass them on to someone who would love to have them. No guilt. We all like different things... otherwise the world would be pretty boring!
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JuliaT
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Krista, you are not the odd man out. I love Dahl's books. My favourites are The BFG, Mathilda and Danny, the Champion of the World. I love these books because they give me the warm fuzzies. I love how the relationships between Danny and his father, Sophie and the BFG and Mathilda and Miss Honey are portrayed. The message I get from all three books is that no matter how bad life is, there is usually one person (maybe the one you least expect) who will stick up for you and be your safe place.
I have read all of the Dahl books to all of my children. The ones mentioned above have been read many times as they have become my children's favourites as well.
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We read Roald Dahl aloud to our 3 oldest, but none of them really liked the books nor the movies (my 13-yo now says he was freaked out by them) so I haven't read or given them to the 10-yo, and probably won't unless she wants to.
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CrunchyMom
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I, too, was traumatized by the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a child and never had any desire to read the books 
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JennGM
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| Posted: July 21 2012 at 8:23am | IP Logged
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CrunchyMom wrote:
| I, too, was traumatized by the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a child and never had any desire to read the books |
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Just cinches my theory that the book usually should be read first. The Gene Wilder movie is NOTHING like the book. You can tell by the changing of the name -- the main character is Charlie in the book, not Willie Wonka. And both movies have completely missed the character of Mr. Wonka.
I agree, those movies can give nightmares. Listen to the book, especially read by Eric Idle. Delightful!
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kristacecilia
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I love the Eric Idle audio book! That is how we read it a few years ago and my kids still talk about how much they enjoyed it.
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kristinannie
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Do you have a link to that audiobook?
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JennGM
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kristinannie wrote:
| Do you have a link to that audiobook? |
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Charlie and The Chocolate Factory CD
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
I also remember the illustrations by Joseph Schindelman as better than Quentin Blake's. Maybe I'm just showing my age.
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SallyT
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Oh, I love Danny Champion of the World. It's been years, and I may be misremembering it, but there is a movie of that book which -- as I recall -- is sweet and beautiful. We saw it at a Saturday morning kids' club movie showing when we lived in Cambridge, when my oldest two were really small, and as I recall, they loved it. We walked out of some movies (I was a little clueless in those days, and we just *went* to things, assuming they were ok, and sometimes they weren't) -- The Witches was one we didn't last very long through, and I never wanted to read the book.
I also loved the Charlie books. As Jenn said, NOTHING like that movie! My kids have also liked an audio of Fantastic Mr. Fox.
I do think Dahl's vision is generally very dark, though how much the darkness prevails varies. But he does also have a sense of the sweetness of good children and the good adults who love them (the flip side of that, of course, is that "bad" children and bad adults are REALLY, exaggeratedly, horrifically bad, which can be disturbing).
Sally
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Dana
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I read the book and watched the movie/musical. I always loved the relationship with the grandparents and how he kept trying to get the ticket. I didn't care too much for the movie, because it kind of left that part out, if I remember it at all. It was pretty creepy so I watched it in school and that was about it. I tried to like it for the sake of my friends who did and did virtually no independent reading outside of school, but it gave me nightmares. I'm easily creeped out though....the owl on Mr. Rogers freaked me out a lot. Still watched it though.
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MNMommy
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Roald Dahl is my 8yo's favorite author. He just laughs and laughs when I read the books aloud. The only one I couldn't stand reading out loud was the BFG. It was so difficult to read!
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Jennifer
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4Real Forums : Living Literature
Topic: Ronald Dahl: Love? Hate?
