Fun, fun, fun!!! That's what I have to say about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl! This was one of the books that I selected for N1's summer reading list and it didn't take much arm-twisting for it to become our current read-aloud. In record time, we devoured this book ... only ending our reading time for such inconveniences such as food and sleep. : )
My copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from childhood. It has seen better days. : )
I'm sure almost everyone is familiar with the story. Charlie Bucket is a poor boy who lives with his parents in a very run-down house with his two sets of grandparents. They live in the same town as the world's most famous chocolate factory run by a mysterious man named Mr. Willy Wonka. No one goes in to the factory and no one goes out, and Mr. Wonka hasn't been seen by anyone for years. Then suddenly, an announcement comes from the factory announcing five golden tickets that have been randomly hidden inside Wonka bars. The lucky ones that find these golden tickets are invited to attend a private tour of the chocolate factory with Mr. Wonka!
If you haven't read the book, I won't say much more other than Charlie does managed to get a hold of a golden ticket and many adventures are in store for him! The fast-paced dialogue and story made this a fantastic read-aloud - and also made us very hungry for chocolate! (Consider yourself warned!) : ) The imagination of Roald Dahl is something to marvel at. His creativity in describing the many features of this magical chocolate factory, the personality of the children in the story, and the zany-ness of Willy Wonka make this story a true delight to read. True God-given creativeness put to very good use, in my opinion, although I don't know where Mr. Dahl stood on such issues.
We highly recommend this book for a fun family read-aloud!
For more great read-aloud suggestions, visit Hope is the Word!
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Our read-aloud review of another Dahl book: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Oh, Charlie--my girls have listened to the audiobook of this one over and over, and we can just name a character and "get it." I love that! We haven't read anything else by Roald Dahl, though. I tend to think of his stuff as sort of dark, for some reason. Have your girls seen either of the Charlie/Willie Wonka movies? We're going to see a local children's theater production of it in July!
ReplyDeleteWe LOVE LOVE LOVE the Johnny Depp version of the movie - we let Noelle watch it from a fairly young age with us (she was probably 3-ish?). She would ask for the "Guy-yi-yi Stew" movie (which was her version of saying Augustus Gloop). The music in that version is fabulous (my musician husband even downloaded the soundtrack for her). Now, I *think* Noelle has watched the original - I know that T and I did after the Depp version came out since it had been so long since we had seen it and we wanted to compare. It's still a classic but there were parts of it that were a little freaky - some 70's psychadelic (sp?) scenes that were pretty visually overwhelming for her. But that version has the Candy Man song that I loved from childhood while I love it, it's probably not the one I'd pick for the girls now.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read this one. Neither have I seen the movie! Jonathan saw it (and was scared by it) when he was little and so it's unofficially banned in our house. But I am terribly curious. ;D
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