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Not his best, but interesting to read his first!
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The Gremlins
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Published in 1943 and long unavailable, this landmark book is from the author of such beloved tales as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "James and the Giant Peach" and "Matilda." Digitally restored, this remarkable presentation of Roald Dahl's classic story is lavishly illustrated by the artists of the Walt Disney Studios.
The story of the The Gremlins concerns the mischievous mythical creatures of the title, often invoked by Royal Air Force pilots as an explanation of mechanical troubles and mishaps. In Dahl's book, the gremlins' motivation for sabotaging British aircraft is revenge of the destruction of their forest home, which was razed to make way for an aircraft factory. The principal character in the book, Gus, has his Hawker Hurricane fighter destroyed over the English Channel by a gremlin, but is able to convince the gremlins as they parachute into the water that they should join forces against a common enemy, Hitler and the Nazis, rather than fight each other. Source: Wikipedia
With full-page color illustrations and with several black and white illustrations by the Disney artists throughout.
This was Roald Dahl's first book and preceded the British publication by several months. The story was optioned by Disney and was intended to be made into an animated film, but it was never produced. A note on the copyright page states: "The RAF Benevolent Fund will receive the author's share of the proceeds from the sale of this book." Dahl's next children's book, James and the Giant Peach, published eighteen years later.
The story of the The Gremlins concerns the mischievous mythical creatures of the title, often invoked by Royal Air Force pilots as an explanation of mechanical troubles and mishaps. In Dahl's book, the gremlins' motivation for sabotaging British aircraft is revenge of the destruction of their forest home, which was razed to make way for an aircraft factory. The principal character in the book, Gus, has his Hawker Hurricane fighter destroyed over the English Channel by a gremlin, but is able to convince the gremlins as they parachute into the water that they should join forces against a common enemy, Hitler and the Nazis, rather than fight each other. Source: Wikipedia
With full-page color illustrations and with several black and white illustrations by the Disney artists throughout.
This was Roald Dahl's first book and preceded the British publication by several months. The story was optioned by Disney and was intended to be made into an animated film, but it was never produced. A note on the copyright page states: "The RAF Benevolent Fund will receive the author's share of the proceeds from the sale of this book." Dahl's next children's book, James and the Giant Peach, published eighteen years later.
56 pages, ebook
First published December 1,1943
This edition
- Format
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56 pages, ebook
- Published
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September 12, 2006 by Dark Horse Books
- ISBN
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9781593074968
- ASIN
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1593074964
- Language
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English
About the author
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Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Norwegian descent, who rose to prominence in the 1940's with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors.
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was Shot Down Over Libya. Today the story is published as A Piece of Cake. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by the Saturday Evening Post for $900, and propelled him into a career as a writer. Its title was inspired by a highly inaccurate and sensationalized article about the crash that blinded him, which claimed he had been shot down instead of simply having to land because of low fuel.
His first children's book was The Gremlins, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. The book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made, and published in 1943. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and James and the Giant Peach.
He also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, usually with a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending. Many were originally written for American magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker, then subsequently collected by Dahl into anthologies, gaining world-wide acclaim. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories and they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death. His stories also brought him three Edgar Awards: in 1954, for the collection Someone Like You; in 1959, for the story "The Landlady"; and in 1980, for the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on "Skin".
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was Shot Down Over Libya. Today the story is published as A Piece of Cake. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by the Saturday Evening Post for $900, and propelled him into a career as a writer. Its title was inspired by a highly inaccurate and sensationalized article about the crash that blinded him, which claimed he had been shot down instead of simply having to land because of low fuel.
His first children's book was The Gremlins, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. The book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made, and published in 1943. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and James and the Giant Peach.
He also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, usually with a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending. Many were originally written for American magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker, then subsequently collected by Dahl into anthologies, gaining world-wide acclaim. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories and they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death. His stories also brought him three Edgar Awards: in 1954, for the collection Someone Like You; in 1959, for the story "The Landlady"; and in 1980, for the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on "Skin".
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Rating(4 / 5.0, 94 votes)
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94 reviews All reviews
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A short little story on a start of a Roald Dahl readathon Well written and enjoyable to read glad I picked this as a starting point.
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Doesn't read like a Dahl book and is the worst book of his that I've read. There's a reason why most people have never heard of this Roald Dahl story.
Definitely not worth reading to your kids.
Definitely not worth reading to your kids.
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I feel like we were tricked into buying this book. We got it while visiting Pearl Harbor. It was sealed in cellophane, marked special edition "The Lost Walt Disney Production". Jake was egging me onto buy this, so basically we paid $12.95, to discover that there was a reason this was a Lost Production. However, I did find the article at the beginning of the book interesting. It told some interesting history about how Walt Disney Studios was commandeered to make training and other war-related films. It was also interesting to see how Ronald Dahl got started.
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Enjoyable foreword by Maltin. I understand why the story never made it to film.
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After reading Love from Boy: Roald Dahl's Letters to His Mother, I was curious about the project that brought Dahl to Hollywood to work with Walt Disney. The introduction by Leonard Maltin helped to put this in context, although in Dahl's letters to his mother, he goes into great detail about the animators he worked with and the Hollywood parties he attended. He took it all in stride.
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Easy to see why this was out of print for 60+ years. Fairly weak and not well written story, although some of the artwork is pretty good. A dated and disappointing artifact.
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This is a very quaint story, which I'm sure lots of children will love.
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