Roald Dahl okumayı severim. Eğlenceli bir kalemi, sınırlardan uzak bir dili var ama ilk defa bu tarz bir öykü kitabını okudum. Kendi içlerinde belki güzel öykülerdi ama hiçbiri benim tam manasıyla tatmin etmedi.
Ayrıca bu kitabın içeriğinin Goodreads etiketlerine rağmen çocuklarla nasıl bir ilgisi olduğunu çıkaramadım. Ben çocuk olsaydım, diğer kitapları varken bunu okumazdım diyebilirim.

Realmente son historias extraordinarias.
Son relatos llenos de color, divertidos, ingeniosos, personajes únicos.
Dahl tenía una capacidad para interconectar temas que era asombrosa.

Hacia mucho que no disfrutaba tanto de unos relatos, me abstrajeron de cualquier realidad y me transportaron a su mundo de ficción fantástica.

A strange but interesting collection.
Andrew Scott is a great narrator.

If there is one book you should read from this collection of short stories it’s the swan. That story has had me in a chokehold for the past week. Like how is this man coming up with story’s like that!!

I'm not usually interested in non-fiction, even Roald Dahl admits he isn't either, but his three non-fiction short stories collected in this book will blow you away.

Out of the seven stories in this book, my favorites would have to be:

"The Hitchhiker" - Loved the ending! did not see it coming! Also the Tales of the Unexpected episode based on this story rawks! Check it out.

"The Mildenhall Treasure" - true story about the two ordinary men who found one of the biggest collections of Roman silver in England. Fascinating!

"The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" - if you love playing cards you will love this story!

"Lucky Break" - autobiographical story about how Dahl became a writer. Beginning with his horrible beatings in boarding school, to his fighter pilot experience in WWII, to meeting Walt Disney, CS Forester, Franklin Roosevelt, and more!

"A Piece of Cake" - first story he ever wrote. Autobiographical story about crashing his plane in WWII. A-frickin-mazing.

The title story, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, is really a treasure. A wonderful and inspiring story for both adults and children. I also quite enjoyed The Boy Who Talked with Animals and The Mildenhall Treasure, the latter which is based on a fascinating real-life story of buried treasure. In typical Dahl fashion, many of the stories have some dark elements, deaths, beatings, etc. The Swan in particular is quite dark and sadistic.

Well, well, well, what do we have here? :)

Very pleased to get to read this book, thanks to Wes Anderson!
I wish I was familiar with Roald Dahl when I was a kid. I find all stories in this book fascinating. Even I found many new subtle things from them, let alone the kids!
- "The Swan" hit me. I never thought he would have written such a heavy story. Every kid needs to know this story before going to school!
In the short movie The Swan by Wes Anderson, the adult version of the poor kid narrates the story, which shows how traumatizing getting bullied is!
- The kid who talked to animals and The wonderful story of Henry Sugar stories point out respecting and protecting animals + social classes. The sooner children learn these topics, the better, otherwise they will learn it the hard way, when they are already in the society and have no idea how to put up with that! (like me)
An my god! How extraordinary his own life was! And what an amazing first story he had written! A piece of cake! He was born to do this!

Roald Dahl’s writing style is completely unrivalled in his field. Both in his children’s books and his ones for adults (e.g. Henry Sugar), his writing style has such a charm and delight to it - it is so inviting and alluring despite being fairly plain and devoid of any unnecessarily flowery descriptions. It just proves that you can be a phenomenal writer without having to worry about using all the vocabulary in the world and looking up every single synonym of the word ‘said’. The thought “if I could write, I would want to write like this” popped up in my head frequently throughout this book.

As a much younger person, Roald Dahl was one of my favourite authors. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The Enormous Crocodile, The Magic Finger, and The Twits were all books that I read and reread several times.
Even now, after having moved on to more sophisticated literature, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is STILL one of my favourite books of all time. To any Roald Dahl fan who hasn’t read Charlie in a while, please go and read it again - it will charm you all over again.

All these years later, getting a taste of Roald Dahl’s adult fiction was very refreshing and fascinating. He has this way of making you feel wonder, joy, despair, and hope all the way through the narrative and his control over the reader’s thoughts is almost unnerving. Just wonderful!

Analysis of Each Story

The Boy Who Talked With Animals
4 stars - a very quirky and fun short story that was a great starter to the collection. Full of suspense and intrigue. One I would happily reread!

The Hitchhiker
Absolutely brilliant!!!! 5 stars. One of the cleverest short stories I have ever read.
Without spoiling anything, the story has elements of trick magic in it; even though you are AWARE these tricks could not possibly be done and that it is just from Dahl’s bonkers imagination, you still feel the sense of “...but how?” when you read about them because Dahl has had you hooked for so long. Spectacular.

The Mildenhall Treasure
To clarify any remaining doubt, this IS based off a genuinely true story.
4 stars for this one - this is one I could not take my eyes away from when I was reading it. Obviously, given that it was a true story, it understandably didn’t have as much of a “wow” factor as ‘The Hitchhiker’, but it was very gripping and extremely interesting. Knowing that it is a true story makes it slightly more sinister. I recommend it!

The Swan
Another 5-star story. Phenomenal.
Along with ‘The Hitchhiker’, it is in the Top 2 Best Stories in this collection. The courage, the hope, determination against odds, and infectiously positive nature the protagonist has to show in this story is mind-blowing. Just take my word for it. READ THIS ONE.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
This one was a little bit long for my liking, but still enjoyable nonetheless. 3.5-4 stars for this story. It reminded me a little bit of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens because there is a bit of a ‘realising-error-of-ways-and-becoming-a-good-person’ plotline which is very Scrooge-esq. It is another story about determination, the power of working hard, learning to concentrate on the things that matter, and the benefits that come from all of that. One I am sure to think of when I need to motivate myself to do work!

Lucky Break
A non-fiction (though I suspect slightly dramatised) account of Dahl’s childhood and how it all led up to him becoming a writer. 3.5 stars. 4.The actual way in which he became a writer was really interesting and unusual, which proved to make a very accomplished story which, once again, I was gripped to in places.
He does give a slightly disheartening list of criteria it takes to be a writer:

“...2) You should be able to write well. By that, I mean you should be able to make a scene come alive in the reader’s mind. Not everybody has this ability. It is a gift, and you either have it or you don’t.”

Don’t listen to him people! Each writer has their own, very DIFFERENT style of writing and there is nothing stopping you if you want to try it out.

Other than that, I was a fan of this one! :)

A Piece of Cake
This was his first ever story, the background of which he explains in ‘Lucky Break’. It talks about his experiences in the RAF and his various injuries/mishaps etc.
3 stars.
My least favourite in the collection just because given the fact that it had taken (due to life) quite a long time to finish this, I almost wanted it to be done with by the time I reached this story. Nevertheless, some of the stuff he allegedly went through is shocking and must have strengthened him for the future to no end! Wow.

Average Rating (roughly): 4 stars. Would highly recommend!

A book of short stories all quick to read and in Dahl’s unmistakable style. Most are fiction and moralistic tales with fun endings. A couple at the end are autobiographical. I thought the book was particularly suitable to teenagers. Contains The Mildenhall Treasure set in Suffolk.

There's a reason these stories aren't among Roald Dahl's best-known works...

This book is composed of seven superb stories by the master himself, Mister Roald Dahl. I would like to review the seven stories briefly...

The Boy Who Talked With Animals is a story about a boy who saved a captured giant turtle from being killed by fishermen and hotel tourists. This story took place in Jamaica, and from the view of a tourist who, despite being the narrator, seemed to be a passive character in the story. I personally like this story because of the unexpected ending. I didn't know that the story would end like that. I read this in my Literature class and the story fascinated me. Reading this story was the one thing that made me borrow the whole book from my teacher, and I'm glad I did.

The Hitchhiker is about a man who found out that the man he had given a lift to is an "extraordinary" person. This short story is marvelous and smartly written. I read this first in eighth grade and it's one of those stories you don't forget about easily.

The Mildenhall Treasure is an interesting non-fiction story about how, one day, a simple plowman had found valuable Roman treasure while working in a field. The story tells of what happened to the treasure after it was found, and how it ended up being exposed to public, three years later. I find this story entertaining, although it is a work of non-fiction, and the ending, once again, just left me impressed. Mr. Dahl is able to make something factual and supposedly boring into a splendid and interesting piece of literature.

The Swan tells the story of an animal-loving boy who was tormented by two bullies. When the two bullies killed a swan, the boy was outraged, but the two bullies had something else planned for him. This story is, honestly, horrible to me. The two bullies were just unbelievably cruel, and it's hard to think that so many kids (teenagers, mostly) are so damaged nowadays. I feel lucky to grow up in a surrounding where there is nearly no act of bullying at all, where I can feel secure and don't have to be cautious and afraid when I step into school or when I go outside to play.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is about a wealthy man who found out how to see with his eyes closed. He then started to use his ability to win over money in casinos around the world. I find this story the most wonderful of all, so I think the title suits the story very much. Every bit of the story was just mind-blowing, and once you start reading it, you won't be able to put it down.

Lucky Break - How I Became A Writer is an extra that Mr. Dahl wrote about the journey of his life, and how he had stumbled into the world of fiction writing. I find this extra very inspiring. Writing fiction is my strongest passion in life, and I know I am still far from being a good one. What Mr. Dahl had written in this extra about fiction writing, and what it really is to be a writer, are valuable to me. I intend to copy this story down and reread it to encourage myself in becoming a better writer.

Last but not least, Piece of Cake is Mr. Dahl's first story, published in 1942 in the Saturday Evening Post. This story is the first of two non-fiction stories Mr. Dahl had ever written in his life (the other one being The Mildenhall Treasure). It tells the story of Mr. Dahl's adventure when he was in the Royal Air Force, and when his plane crashed somewhere in the Libyan desert.

All and all, this book is enthralling and beautiful. People of all ages would find this book enchanting. I strongly recommend it especially to teenagers like myself, who, as Dahl said in the opening of this book, "are going through that long and difficult metamorphosis when they are no longer children and have not yet become adults." Come on everyone, go pick up this book and start delving yourselves into the brilliant mind of Mr. Roald Dahl!

Odd collection. Though clearly marketed as a book for young readers, if not children per se (it says 12 and up), this does not really seem like a kids' book to me. While none of the stories include content that would be inappropriate for young readers (by many people's estimation, anyway), none of it really seems aimed at young readers, particularly. Indeed, some of the pieces--e.g. Dahl's war memoir, or his somewhat fictionalized account of the discovery of a Roman treasure hoard--were clearly NOT written with children specifically in mind. Even the stories with important child characters--"The Boy Who Talked to Animals" and "The Swan" (both intriguing fables)--do not read like stories for kids. The title story is long, involves multiply embedded narrative levels, and has meta elements--again, nothing a younger reader couldn't handle, but also not elements that signal an intent to appeal to children, either. On the other hand, Dahl's memoir about his childhood and how he became a writer often explains and defines things one would assume most adults know, so does seem aimed at younger readers. Anyway, the result is a somewhat puzzling mix. Four of the stories are pure fiction, one is a narrativized account of fact, and two are straight-up autobiographical pieces. It feels more like Dahl had a few pieces lying around that hadn't been collected, and which he decided to combine, than it does like a coherent collection.