اطفال تستبعدهم رغباتهم و غرائزهم؛
يجدون انفسهم امام انهار من الحلوي تنساب امام اع��نهم
فماذا سيحدث؟

تشارلي باكيت طفل فقير من عائلة مترابطة؛ يمضي اوقاته في أحلامه  اللانهائية بالشكولاته الني يعشقها و لا يملك ثمنها
و فجأة تنتعش احلامه عند اعلان ويلي وانكا عن مسابقة لقضاء يوم في مصنعه للشيكولاته و بمعجزة يحصل تشارلي علي تذكرة

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و يذهب مع فتاة مدللة و طفل نهم سمين؛ و اخر مدمن على التلفاز و الالعاب و في مصنع العجائب نتعرف علي شخصيات الأطفال المتباينة
و ايضا علي ويلي وانكا ضاحب المظهر الغريب و الأفكار الاكثر غرابة
تجعله يُخضع الأطفال لاختبارات نفسية ليصل للاقلهم انقيادا وراء اهواءه و رغباته الطفولية او الإنسانية؛
فهل سيضع نهاية لزجة لكل طفل لزج؟

معظم اعمال الاطفال تميل للتبسط و المباشرة و التسطيح؛ و لكن ليس مع فانتازيا رواالد دال الذي رحل عام ١٩٩٠ و  يمنحنا دوما نظرة مذهلة و احيانا مخيفة عن الجانب المظلم للطفولة

I am a grown up woman yet I prefer reading middle grade books. Why I am reading this kind of genre? Am I crazy? Am I not in the mood to read deeper books? My answer was NO. Simply because, reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory doesn’t give not only light read but it gives lessons that sometimes adult like us seems to forget.

It was really fascinating and somehow hilarious that this kind of children books were the one gave me realizations that I admittedly forget of how important great values are. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl was not just a light, sometimes funny read but it has a secret message that was waiting for us to reveal.

And after reading this, middle grade books are in my list of my favorites.

I am one of the very few readers in the world, I feel, who have read almost all of Roald Dahl's adult stories but very less of his tales for children. (I have only read Matilda). Having nothing to do other than sit at home and watch the Corona virus continue its merry dance across the world, I thought a little escapism won't be amiss - and raided my son's old bookshelf to unearth this classic.

Dahl is an extremely subversive writer - he is not politically correct, not by a long chalk! But in this book, he is much more on the side of conventional morality than Matilda. However, if one reads between the lines, the barbs aimed at society are very much present.

The tale is of Charlie Bucket, an abysmally poor boy who gets his reward at the end, just by being "good" - the conventional trope of a fairy tale. But the story is located in the here and the now, and the root cause of the penury of Charlie's family is pointed out as capitalism: his assembly-line-worker father cannot provide for his wife and child, as well as two sets of aged parents. The poverty is described in hyperbolic terms, but as in Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush, it's very real.

Charlie's secret craving is for chocolate - as symbolised by the factory of Willy Wonka, situated in his town, but unapproachable by him or anyone else. Until one day, he wins a surprise ticket to visit the factory along with four other children, all of them spoilt. As can be expected, the bad children all get their comeuppance while Charlie is rewarded beyond his wildest dreams. Willy Wonka is the fairy godmother here.

But once one goes beyond the simplistic reading into the hidden text, some disturbing things begin to surface. Wonka is running the factory through the slave labour (practically!) of mythical creatures called Oompa - Loompas, creatures modelled on aboriginal tribes. They are being paid cacao nuts to work almost continuously without a break. Moreover, Wonka's testing of his quirky products on his tribal workforce would really raise eyebrows.

The "bad" children are not really bad in the true sense. They chew gum, throw tantrums, watch TV and eat like gluttons - characteristics of pampered middle-class children in many families. By blowing up their faults and submitting them to grotesquely comic punishments, the author is playing on the antagonism between the poor and the well-off in a traditional capitalist society.

Chocolate is a metaphor - for all that is unattainable for the masses but still craved by them; yet something which is not only useless, but harmful to health if not consumed in moderation. The way people try to gain entry into Wonka's factory by locating the golden ticket is one of the most hilarious passages in the book: it also holds a mirror to the society we live in.

But if one forgets all that, and reads the book as a children's story, it is a humdinger of a tale!

i read this book at the age of approximately 8 and immediately transferred all of my hopes and dreams into discovering, touring, and inheriting a whimsical chocolate factory.

i've never quite gotten over that, so...

let me know if you have any leads?

part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago

I loved the movie (Johnny Depp’s version) as a kid and the book is just as awesome!

Some friends recommended other Roald Dahl books so I’ll be binge reading them for quite a few weeks.

Total time spent: 1h 55min.

this would be one of very few books i just wished i could jump into ( god those mouth watering treats!) this was my first roald dahl books[which got me into reading his books} and so far my favorite. its such cute and sweet[literally sweet XD} book every kid out there would love to read!

"Isn't it wonderful?" asked Willy Wonka. "Haven't the Oompa-Loompas done a fine job? I particularly liked their poems. Quite perfect, don't you agree?"

Charlie turned red. "I, uh..." he began.

"Yes?" said Willy Wonka. "I know, it's not long enough. It should have been twice as long. Three times as long. But you mustn't discourage them. I'm sure they did the very best they could."

Grandpa Joe had meanwhile put on his glasses and peered at the book. "It's not that," he said. "Mr. Wonka, I think there's been some mistake. This book isn't in English. In fact, I don't properly know what language it's in. We can't understand a word of it."

"Of course!" said Willy Wonka, dramatically striking his forehead. "Of course. How silly of me, I forget to give you your Linguistic Lollies. My very latest and most brilliant invention. Now let me see," he said as he pulled a box out of his pocket and began fumbling through it, "Danish, Dari, Dakota, Dyirbal, where is it! Ah, here we are, Dutch." He pulled out a handful of brightly coloured sweets and gave one to each member of the party. "Take these and I'm sure we'll soon be back on track."

Charlie popped the sweet in his mouth. It had a curious taste which reminded him of cheese, tulips and something he couldn't name, but somehow it was quite delicious. In a moment he had gobbled it up.

"Alright," said Willy Wonka, clapping his hands. "Look at the book again. Why don't you try reading a bit aloud."

Charlie opened it, "S, uh," he began, and stopped. A look of great surprise came over his face.

"Yes?" said Willy Wonka. Charlie stared at the book and continued. "’s Avonds als hij zijn avondmaal van waterige koolsoep op had, ging Sjakie altijd naar de kamer van zijn vier grootouders om naar hun verhalen te luisteren en ze daarna goedenacht te zeggen."

"And in English?" asked Willy Wonka encouragingly. Charlie's eyes were as big as saucers.

"I know what it means!" he said. "'’s Avonds' - well, that's 'in the evening', 'als hij zijn avondmaal van waterige koolsoep op had', 'when he'd had his dinner of watery cabbage soup'. Of course, 'koolsoep', that's like Swedish 'kålsoppa'! 'ging Sjakie altijd naar de kamer van zijn vier grootouders', 'ging' and 'altijd' are like in Swedish, 'kammer' and 'vier' are like in German, so it's 'went Sjakie always to the room of his four grandparents'. 'Om naar hun verhalen te luisteren en ze daarna goedenacht te zeggen', what's 'verhalen', oh, it must be 'stories'. 'To listen to their stories then say goodnight to them'. I see, the German initial S is often changed into Z, so 'sein' and 'sagen' become 'zijn' and 'zeggen'."

"Exactly so!" said Willy Wonka. "You see, you understood it all along. Now we must hurry or we'll never have time for the Parsing Peppermints."

I'm sitting here on the couch watching Violet turn violet and fill up with juice before being sent off to the de-juicing room. The sun is going down, and it's almost bedtime out here, at least for the kids. My night is just beginning. I've been halfway following along with the movie and thinking about how awesome it was to be a kid- to dream of chocolate factories and eating a lifetime supply of chocolate with no fear of diabetes or a heart attack.

This was the first book I read all the way through with the kids, and then we were immediately back at the library to pick up the sequel, which I never read as a kid. It has a really weird beginning. Not quite the same as this one. But I'm having the time of my life reading classic children's book out loud and feeling young again.

My oldest son is 7 and he's on he fourth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. He's flying through them! He now takes a book to school, in the car on short rides, to bed at night, and anywhere else he can. Hashtag parenting win. I hope he sticks with it.

Mike Teevee just got blasted into a million pieces and showed up on television. What a wild trip that was, he says. Almost time for Charlie to.... spoiler alert... we'll, you know what happens next. You should know. Everyone knows. Gene Wilder is awesome.

I thought I read a lot of Roald Dahl as a kid, but there are a lot of books I missed apparently. I did star as the father of James in my high school's production of James and the Giant Peach. I had one line, I think. I just said "Oh no! A rhino!" I'm pretty sure that was it, and then I died. Trampled by a rhinoceros.

You get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!

I can't decide what to rate this!!! It seems odd rating it, because even though I didn't read it as a child I still know the story so well since the movies (well, the first one) is adapted so nicely. It's a great story. Really dark, actually, darker when you read it, but it still feels weird rating a story I already know so well. It didn't feel new, just nice and comforting because it was familiar.

I had this as 3 stars when I was writing but now I'm changing to 4, I don't know why, they aren't that important, but it feels better.

I had some car errands to run yesterday and felt that because I was going to be in and out of my car, I wanted to listen to an audiobook of something I was familiar with, from earlier in my life. I had not read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory since middle school, I guess. I had read it several times in elementary school and middle school, so I still remembered the story well. There's something about going to an old favorite as kind of a comfort read that keeps you revved up with love for reading. After going through something as dry as a memoir written by a Revolutionary War hero, I needed to read something quick and homey. I love this narrative and Dahl tells this story with the flair of a Dr. Seuss, especially with the comedic highpoints of the Oompa Loompas. Neil Gaiman was the audiobook narrator with his own distinctive storytelling prowess, adding to the mix. The story remains a whimsical fantasy that even a person at my age can still find as magical and as thought-provoking as I did when I was a different age.

Harry's tormentor? Or, Charlie's mother? Or, Marla Sanger?

The latest in my recent teaching of Dahl books...

Yes I get that it's a beloved children's novel, and the whole weird Roald Dahl thing. And much has already been said of the problematic Oompah-Loompah problematic African pygmies thing (really it's much more offensive in the books about them being shipped in crates from their land, unlike the film adaptations where they're just unexplained magical creatures).

But what really bothered me is the lesson that the way to get out of poverty is to win the lottery. It's not even just that Charlie's family is poor, they are outright starving before he wins the golden ticket. I know I know, it wouldn't be a whimsical story to get into government social programs and capitalistic exploitation. But the subtext really is there: Get out of poverty by winning the lottery.

A funny book for kids of course, but even for a children's novel don't analyze it too much!

Admittedly, maybe I'm overthinking this