I had never heard of this book before so I was quite intrigued by what the story was about. I was also quite surprised to see that the artwork was done by artists at the Disney studios which I think added another element to the story.

I can see why Dahl’s first published book was based around the RAF and their pilots during the Battle for Britain. Being a pilot in the RAF himself, Dahl would be intimately involved and aware of the stories that the pilots would tell themselves to explain away the unexplainable.

I liked this book, and I appreciated being able to see Dahl’s first book for the very first time.

Good review found at the following link:

http://animatedviews.com/2006/book-re...

The book very loosely inspired the movie of the same name. I thought I had read all of Roald Dahl's books until I found out about this one last week and I was shocked to learn about its history with Walt Disney and the Disney film that never happened. What we think of when we think of Gremlins would be completely different! This was Dahl's first work of children's fiction and while I didn't enjoy it as much as the other classics, I did love seeing his sense of humor and wordplay shine through from his very first attempt at a children's book.

I was thrilled to stumble upon this little beauty at my local library. Gremlins is Roald Dahl's first book, and I knew I would track it down some day. It's not overly memorable, but a fan can see glimpses of the writer Dahl was to become someday. As a bonus, Leonard Maltin gives a bit of the back story behind Walt Disney's work on a Gremlins movie that never got off the ground.

A fascinating book by Roald Dahl. He has an amazing body of work; just the other night I saw "Man from the South" (1960) on Alfred Hitchcock Presents written by him. I really can't think of anyone else that could write that and then swing over and write Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! This book is just fun and takes you back to older type animation...sure to please Disney fans.

I'm so sad that I'm running out of Dahl Books

I'm nearing the end of my 6 month adventure into the Dahl-verse and the once limitless-seeming supply is slowly dwindling. On the plus side, once I finish everything he's ever written, I can always go back through again!

The Gremlins was Roald Dahl's first published children's book and functioned as a piece of war propaganda for Disney.

Roald Dahl joined the RAF (Royal Air Force) almost as soon as the WWII started. Throughout the RAF was legends of Gremlins - little creatures that did mischievous things to the planes when the pilots weren't looking.

In this novel, a young pilot for the RAF spots a gremlin and soon, the gremlins and all sorts of assorted creatures come out of the woodwork to make mischief happen to the planes.

The pilot soon comes up with a plan. If they can train the Gremlins to help, rather than destroy, then the RAF could stand a great chance at surviving. But can such troublemakers be trained? Will the war be won?

Disney bought the rights to this one and planned on making an animated film, only by the time the project got off of the ground...folks weren't interested and the war-film market was flooded.

It was an interesting story but didn't have the same spark that Dahl's later works contain. It certainly didn't knock my socks off but it was still cool to read Dahl's first book!

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The first (Children) story he's ever written - meant for a Walt Disney movie which never happened. This shows because the story is missing Roald Dahl's unique style and heart. Unfortunately a letdown for me.

Believathon II: Journey to the Stronghold. The Deepwoods: Read a book that was published before 2000!

My all-time, second-favorite book about the Battle of Britain.

Now I'm off for a breakfast of used postage stamps and good strong ale...

A fat 11 days to read what amounts to less than 5-10 small pages, as it is a picture book.

My edition was an unzoomable painful to the eyes small font pdf, every two lines meant a lot of squinting and incurring a mean headache, rendering what should have been a 15 minutes read to be that of hours and days.

I was very happy to see that "fifinella" had found its way to the dictionary :D

I couldn't help being reminded of "Le Petit Prince" and its author.
The beginning led me to go confirm how both authors were really similar in so many aspects.

This extremely short story made me spin the dictionary and the web a lot for aeronautical terminology, I now know that my starboard is right and my port is left, I know my leading edge from my trailing edge.
I know the difference between a fighter and a bomber, and I know various kinds of the ones used by the R.A.F and by the Germans in WWII.
I picked up different walking patterns and how to term them, I also picked up some idioms.

Most importantly, I who had a lost childhood finally have officially encountered the terms no, the creatures called Gremlins, fifinellas, & widgets. I also got to look up a hobgoblin and know that he is an ugly goblin, a goblin himself, a troll, and a pixie which made me look up the difference between a pixie and a faerie.

It was cute a journey with a one note page having 122 words, terms and idioms in it.
I am a better person for it, even though I'm reading it so late into my life.

For the story itself, I had confused feelings. In fact, I had quite the resentment about the gremlins.
I gather that humans didn't know of them, but I don't see how that makes it okay. Humans knew of humans when discovering lands and still dehumanized them.
As a Palestinian my heart skipped a beat when I read the word Palestine, then I recalled the story dates back to 1943, pre the 1948 misery. But also as a Palestinian I was on team Gremlins so, resented the notion of "Me and my brother against my cousin, and me and said cousin against a stranger", I mean I appreciate seeing the notion not forgotten and taken into play, and it would have been cool had this been it...
The ending also gave me confused feelings, as I thrive on chaos as well, yet I didn't fancy the result much.

I always expected I'd give my first registered Dahl read a 5 stars. Sadly, I see I shall have to give it 3.5/5 stars and since halves don't exist, then going by greatest integer function I'll give it a 3.

Hopefully, my next Roald Dahl read is an epub instead of this painful mess.

You know, I really enjoy Roald Dahl. In fact, I'm slowly going through just about everything he's written. Unfortunately, when you decide to read everything someone has written you come up against a few unfortunate reads. For me, this was one of them. During the World Wars a great number of books were written for children about aspects of military life. This was how The Gremlins was born.

Gremlins are tiny creatures that go through planes (and most mechanical objects) and totally mess them up. You probably have a few messing with your WiFi on occasion. Why do they do this? Their forests were destroyed during the Industrial Revolution and they want revenge. Why else? Maybe for fun, or maybe not. In this story Roald Dahl decides to create a little school for them so they can repair planes rather than destroy them. Which... I guess makes sense? Now the pilots won't have anyone to blame but themselves when things go wrong though. Didn't think that one through, did you?

This book just... bored me. The illustrations weren't enough to keep me engaged, I was constantly confused by who didn't believe in them and who did. I don't understand why they decided to work with creatures that nearly murdered them for fun. It was just a bit of a mess for me. Oh well. I think Disney even got a film out of this nonsense.

No nostalgia here, and no Snoopy to keep me engaged. Alas.