3.5/5

An outstanding book to be shared with your children.

Koostuu romaaneista Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ja Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Ainakin ensin mainittu tunnetaan myös elokuvasovituksista, ja minulla on hämäriä muistikuvia jostain 80-luvulla näkemästäni elokuvasta, mutta kokonaiskuvan juonesta sain vasta nyt. Eksentrinen kapitalisti ja kolonialisti Willy Wonka kutsuu viisi onnekasta lasta kiertokäynnille suklaatehtaaseensa. Kiertokäynnin aikana ahneille käy juuri niin kuin ahneille käy. Köyhän kodin Charlie ei lankea houkutuksiin, ja lopussa hän saakin yllätyksekseen koko tehtaan perintönä Willy Wonkalta.

Jälkimmäisessä romaanissa lennetään ensin lasihissillä avaruuteen aiheuttamaan kansainvälinen selkkaus ja taistelemaan avaruusolioita vastaan, ja sen jälkeen palataan suklaatehtaaseen, jossa vanhuksia ensin nuorennetaan ja sitten vanhennetaan takaisin lääkkeellisesti. Minun oli vaikea löytää tästä jälkimmäisestä kohelluspätkästä varsinaista juonta.

A highly enjoyable read which carries great messages and insight.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I'm in my fifties and have never before read a Roald Dahl book. My children have, but not me. I've seen the movie (Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory - the ORIGINAL, mind you), but never read the books. What a loss. I know his books are supposed to be for children, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed reading this volume, which includes Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (upon which the movie is based), as well as Charlie & The Great Glass Elevator. Creatively linguistic, funny, and it actually throws in teaching moments without getting bogged down by them. Just a joy to read, for children AND adults.

n  Charlie and the Chocolate Factoryn:

"But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there."

I love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with all my heart, so when I first got this book back in 2014, I was as happy as Charlie when he got his Golden Ticket.

Re-reading this book as an older audience, it felt different. I still got those happy feelings of a child throughout this whole book, but there were some little details that I paid more attention to. For example, I never see the moral values of any books that I read as a child, but now, I noticed those values and I will keep it noted. This book taught me a lot about accepting all we have, because there are a lot of people who are in need. But now, I see more things like, how every tiny act that we do can affect our whole life just like what happened to the other kids affected theirs. It's just mind-blowing.

I also understand a lot more of the characters and why they are so annoying-ly annoying. Veruca Salt, a girl who is spoiled by her parents, and Mike Teavee, a boy who does nothing but watch television, still remain as my least favorite characters, epecially our young Miss Salt. Violet Beauregarde, a girl who chews gum all day long, and Augustus Gloop, a greedy boy, are still pretty acceptable, for me at least. But, they're all nasty brats. Except for our dearest Charlie Bucket, The Hero, IS SO PRECIOUS OMG HE DESERVES ALL HAPPINESS!! Mr. Willy Wonka, our super weird yet funny chocolatier, love him always!

Overall, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was such a wonderful re-read. It's definitely one of my favorite books of all time! I can't wait to give it another re-read!!

n  Charlie and the Great Glass Elevatorn:

"You'll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that."

I never actually finish this book (SHAME). But, I've read like 9 of 20 chapters so, I can say that I've read a good amount of the book (NO SHAME).

The plot-line of this book was a little bit confusing for me. It was good, it was fun, but it was confusing. I thought I would hate it but, no I was wrong! n  Roald Dahln's touches to the story were phenomenal! He added those unique-ly weird and funny extra touches that brought the story to live! Fantastic!

Mr. Wonka was even more peculiar in this book, and I love that! We also got a lot more of the grandparents in this one, it was a little unexpected for me, but I really enjoyed it. They were really funny and they managed to brought the story to a different level.

Overall, this book was great, but not as great as the first one. I still really enjoyed the expansion of Mr. Wonka's magically weird world.

n  Conclusionn:

Such a splendid book, or should I say series? I love meeting these characters again and get those nostalgic feels, my poor heart just can't.

4.5 stars

This book contains 2 novellas about Charlie's adventures with Mr. Wonka. The first one, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", is probably familiar by book or film to most readers. The second one, "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator", was unfamiliar to me and to perhaps many other readers.

The first book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", is a great story. The movie version I saw of it, with Gene Wilder as Mr. Wonka, has stayed with me for many years. The book and that film version are more or less the same. I cannot speak of the version made by Johnny Depp, as I have not seen that one.

The second, lesser known story, was in my opinion, not as good. In that book, Charlie, all his grandparents and his parents go with Mr. Wonka into outer space and end up at the new and yet to be staffed Space Hotel. There they all run into the horrible Knids, a shaped shifting alien race who have taken over the Space Hotel.

The second story is just not as good as the first one. I therefore gave this book 4 stars because the first book was great and the second one was only o.k. Had the second book been better, this would have definitely been a 5 star book for me.

nice book for beginners..

just as wonderful and amazing as Roald Dahl`s other books

This is definitely a fun yet dated read. Chocolate Factory definitely aged better then Glass Elevator. Yes Roald Dahl was from a different time but that doesn’t mean we can’t look back and say “you know that part sucked “. Chocolate factory was a fun read and I enjoyed the imagery that bought me back to watching both the movies as a child. Glass Elevator however was kinda boring and a lot more messed up then chocolate factory. The part that I really hated was the page where the President is talking to China and the language used is of course the old “Chinese people say English worlds weird” racism. Also Wonka trafficked those Oompa Loompas and conducted inhumane experiments on them. But honestly I still enjoyed the book despite all this. Roald Dahl was a complex but problematic man. Although I think his work should be celebrated for defining some of the most important pieces of kids media we should still acknowledge his problematic views and use them as teachable moments for the next generation to help them be better.

The first book is great the second book was just… what the heck is going on. I completely understand why there has never been a follow up movie at all anymore because the book goes everywhere and ends up nowhere. I think way too much happens in one day and very fast. Felt like the second book was rushed through.

Am I horrible for not loving these books? In truth, I think I may have enjoyed them better had I not seen either movie adaptation to begin with, so I already knew the general theme of the story quite well. However, I never loved the movies either, so I'm not surprised that I wasn't in love with these books. They were both okay, and I'm glad I can mark off that I've finally read them, but I just really couldn't get into them the way everyone else seems to be able to.

That being said, I liked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory better than Charlie and the Glass Elevator. The second story seemed far more scattered, indirect, and written for the sake of continuing the story, but there wasn't much point to the story, beyond poking fun at ideas like greed, selfishness, and the ridiculousness of the American government and politicians.

One of the things that always got me in this story is it seemed very much to be a cautionary tale, in a way. "Don't be like these people." However, so much of it was messages that weren't necessarily children can relate to. The message seemed to be more one geared towards parents and a "don't raise your kids to be like this" kind of way with the cautionary songs that are sung, with the exception of maybe the chewing gum story and the girl and the medicine cabinet in the Glass Elevator. In the case of Mike Teavee and the song there, it was implied that kids wouldn't argue and fight, or even play loudly or be a bother if they didn't have television, because kids would suddenly discover books, and that would keep them busy. Having lived without television, and even at one point without a computer, I can honestly say that's not necessarily true. Kids are more likely to play imaginatively, making up grand adventures, but kids that aren't into books or simply don't love them aren't going to pick up a book because you took their television away, except, perhaps, if there are no other kids around to play with.

This is one of those classic stories that's taken me years to get to, since I'd never read it as a child. I'd never had much interest in Roald Dahl and his works when I was younger, and never really got into either of the movies. However, I do know that one of my kids loves the first story (and thinks he's going to read the other one) so who knows. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea.