I would like to introduce you to perhaps the coolest author literature has…
September is world kid lit month! September 8th is International literacy day, September 13th is Roald Dahl day, and the 30th is International translation day!
So to celebrate kid’s literature, from around the world, which has been translated into over 50 languages, I would like to introduce you to our library’s collection of Roald Dahl books!
Most of us have happy memories of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Matilda. But Roald Dahl was a man with a very interesting life off the page. He was born in Wales during the Great War, he was a chocolate bar tester at school, and a fighter pilot and spy in the Second World War. He had two wives (the first of which was a movie star) and five children. He was co-inventor of a ground breaking cerebral shunt for people with brain injuries. He wrote the screen plays for the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as well as six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and one cookbook. He wrote 17 children’s books, 3 collections of poetry for children, 19 collections of short stories (most not for children) and 2 novels for adults, as well as 7 nonfiction books. After his death in 1990, his second wife created Roald Dahl’s Marvelous Children’s Charity, and The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Buckinghamshire UK. I would encourage you to check out his website at https://www.roalddahl.com/home and our library’s great collection of his books.
The BFG – Kidsnatched from her orphanage by a BFG (big friendly giant) who spends his life blowing happy dreams to children, Sophie concocts with him a plan to save the world from nine other man-gobbling cannybull giants.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – each of five children lucky enough to discover an entry ticket into Mr. Willy Wonka’s mysterious chocolate factory takes advantage of the situation in their own way.
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator – taking up where Charlie and the Chocolate factory leaves off, Charlie, his family and Mr. Wonka find themselves launched into space in the great glass elevator.
Danny Champion of the World – A young English boy describes his relationship with his father and the special adventure they share together.
Esio trot – Shy Mr. Hoppy devises a plan to win the heart of his true love by reaching her a spell to make her tortoise grow bigger.
Fantastic Mr. Fox – Three horrid farmers – Boggis, Bunce and Bean – hate cunning Mr Fox, who outwits them at every turn. But poor Mr Fox and his friends don’t realise how determined the farmers are to get them…
George’s Marvelous Medicine – George decides that his grumpy, selfish grandmother must be a witch and concocts some marvelous medicine to take care of her.
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me – The Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company has just moved in to the old wooden house not far from where Billy lives. He’d rather have a wonderful sweet-shop, but when he meets the members of the Company he can’t believe his eyes.
James and the Giant Peach – James Henry Trotter lives with his two horrid aunts, Spiker and Sponge. He hasn’t got a single friend in the whole wide world. That is not, until he meets the Old Green Grasshopper and the rest of the insects aboard a giant, magical peach!
The magic finger – When the girl in this story gets cross, strange things start happening. Above all, she can’t bear it when people are cruel to animals. So when her neighbours the Greggs go shooting, her magic finger teaches them a lesson they’ll never forget…
Matilda – Matilda applies her untapped mental powers to rid the school of the evil, child-hating headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, and restore her nice teacher Miss Honey to financial security.
The Twits – Mr Twit hates his wife. Mrs Twit detests her husband. They like nothing more than playing wicked tricks on one another. Sooner or later, things are going to go too far…
The Witches – A young boy and his Norwegian grandmother, who is an expert on witches, together foil a witch’s plot to destroy the world’s children by turning them into mice.
The wonderful story of Henry Sugar – Seven tales of the bizarre and unexpected – enter a brilliant, sinister and wholly unpredictable world. Written for older children
Skin and other stories – A collection of short stories. In our teen collection.
Boy: a tale of childhood – a funny, insightful and at times grotesque glimpse into the early life of Roald Dahl.
Going Solo – Continuing from where he left off at the end of Boy: Tales of Childhood, Going Solo focuses on Roald’s adult life before he began his career as a writer.