Neo's class has been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which led us to watching both versions of the film. When he learned of this sequel, he wanted us to give it a try. Not one he highly recommends, but here is a slightly updated version of my original review:

After the hair-raising adventure that Charlie Bucket underwent in the opening novel, Dahl is ready to entertain young readers again. When last we spoke of Charlie, he was loading his entire family into the glass elevator from his newly-acquired chocolate factory. With Willy Wonka and Grandpa Joe helping at the controls, Charlie welcomes Mr. and Mrs. Bucket, Grandpa George, and Grandmas Josephine and Georgina into the machine before it blasted off. Heading up, up, up into the sky, Wonka explains the wonders of his machine, which can go in any direction and into any room whatsoever. Wonka is eager to show off the elevator's prowess, blasting it into space, where the group is spotted by a US rocket ship full of astronauts. Reporting back to the White House, these astronauts speak about the peculiar nature of the unidentified ship in front of them. The President of the United States is sure they are astronaut spies that cannot be trusted, even from afar. As Wonka and Charlie dock the elevator onto the International Space Hotel USA, more drama ensues when an extra-terrestrial being is seen wandering around. Knowing much about space and its inhabitants, Wonka helps protect the aforementioned US ship and the containment pod carrying workers for the hotel, before blasting back towards earth. Upon arrival back at the factory, Wonka seeks to enliven Charlie's grandparents, in hopes that they will get out of bed and help run the factory. Stubborn and old, George, Georgina, and Josephine refuse, but are subject to a product that Willy Wonka has been using inside the factory walls; a pill that can reverse the aging process. When the three greedy grandparents take matters into their own hands, Wonka must use another product, with the opposite effect, to calibrate their ages again. Just as Charlie thinks the drama might be done, there comes a special letter from Washington, with another round of adventures for everyone to enjoy. Dahl's creative juices were surely flowing and shall never be bottled as he creates more fun for the young and those who feel it in the bones.

While not as crafty as the first Charlie Bucket story, Dahl brings readers into the fold with another outlandish tale that pushes the limits of the imagination. That said, it does clip along nicely and utilises some of the minor characters from the opening tale (grandparents) in a more hands-on role, which is sure to pique the interest of the reader. Dahl chooses to focus more on the action-adventure in this book than the slowly evolving adventure that touches the heart, which I did not care for as much, but still remain happy to see how things developed. The novel poses fewer themes and lessons than pure, silly entertainment for the reader. I can see what this was never picked up for a movie (to the best of my knowledge), but can only hope that if it is, Johnny Depp is kept away from the project, as he left a new generation with a sour taste in their mouths that no Oompa Loompa could fix. While the ending does leave room for more adventures and the characters could make for an interesting mix within the factory walls, the passing of Roald Dahl in 1990 has made that a natural impossibility. But, with a score of other novels for children to explore, there is hope that the new generation will look back to what entertained their parents and grandparents, finding richness in stores that did not require vampires, wizards, or even Middle School.

Kudos, Mr. Dahl for touching so many lives across the generations with simple ideas that flourish into magic.

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Continuación de “Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate”, en la cual nos adentramos a otra gran aventura a lado de Willy Wonka y que como su antecesor, está lleno de magia, además de que es entretenido, creativo y con un gran sentido del humor, simplemente me ha gustado y me ha dejado con ganas de más porque este personaje da para mucho más con sus excelentes inventos.

Definitely did not live up to the first book. The plot was messy and confusing and it wasn't half as creative as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Also, the race jokes made me sooo uncomfortable.

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

Tavatessamme Jalin viimeksi hän leijui korkealla kotikaupunkinsa yllä suuressa lasihississä. Ihan vähää aikaa aiemmin herra Vonkka oli kertonut pojalle, että hän lahjoittaa tälle koko jättimäisen satumaisen suklaatehtaansa. Nyt pieni ystävämme oli palaamassa voitokkaana koko perheensä kanssa tehtaaseen ottaakseen sen omakseen. (s. 9)

Jali ja lasihissi on käsittääkseni ainoa Roald Dahlin kirjoittama jatko-osa ja se jatkuu suoraan Jali ja suklaatehdas-kirjan jälkeen.

Vonkan keksinnöillä on aina lopulta tapana toimia, paitsi jos häntä häiritään, tai hänen antamiaan ohjeita ei totella, silloin mitä vain voi tapahtua. Kuinka onkaan, matka hissillä ei suju aivan Vonkan suunnitelmien mukaan, vaan koko joukko eli Vonkka, Jali, tämän vanhemmat ja iso-vanhemmat) päätyvät maata kiertävälle radalle. Onneksi myös suuri avaruushotelli on vasta vähän aikaisemmin laukaistu kiertoradalle. Vonkka hakee turvaa hotellista vain huomatakseen, että joku muu on jo valloittanut sen, vaikka hotellihenkilökunta on vasta matkalla.

Lopulta ja monen mutkan jälkeen Vonkka saa ohjattua hissin takaisin suklaatehtaalle. Uusia ongelmia kuitenkin syntyy, kun hän tarjoaa Jalin isovanhemmille Vonkka-vitamiinia, ihmelääkettä, jonka jokainen pilleri nuorentaa syöjäänsä kaksikymmentä vuotta. Vonkan tavoitteena on saada vanhukset pois sängystä, jossa nämä ovat jo kaksi vuosikymmentä maanneet - ja onnistuukin tässä lopulta, vaikkakaan ei aivan niin kuin oli aluksi kuvitellut.

Seuraa lisää poukkoilua lasihisillä ja asioiden palauttamista ennalleen. Toisin kuin muissa lukemissani Dahlin teoksissa, ei tässä tarinassa ollut senkään vertaa päätä tai häntää kuin hänen muussa tuotannossaan. Mitään ei oikeastaan tapahtu, vaikka koko ajan kohelletaan jotain. Teos on kuitenkin siinä mielessä helposti luettavaa, että tylsää hetkeä ei ehdi syntyä. Lopussa olisin kuitenkin toivonut enemmän sisältöä tähän hölmöilyyn.

Plussaa on kuitenkin annettava rohkeudesta käyttää kerronnassa lapsilukijoille hieman vaikeita termejä, kuten retroraketti ja dendrokronologia - "katso tämä sana sitten kotonasi sanakirjasta, ole kiltti" (s. 152). Jos olisin lukenut tuon kehotuksen lapsena, olisin todellakin ottanut ja etsinyt tuon sanan merkityksen.

This just wasn’t for me. I struggled getting through it because I lost interest very early on. I only made it through this because of the audiobook!

I don’t know…it just doesn’t have the same magic as the first book. It was meant to be a direct sequel and definitely picked up where the first book left off, but it just seemed so all over the place which isn’t surprising since the glass elevator did end up in space orbit!!! No wonder why they never made a film sequel!! The first story ended beautifully and perfectly. The world could have been a much better place had this just never been created. There really was no need for a sequel at all! Some things are better left alone!

I didn't find a professional audiobook on Scribd so I listened to a random person reading it on a Spotify podcast (Jack Jack's Assorted Tales). And he did mostly a good job! However I found the story itself a bit too silly and didn't enjoy it as much as the first book.

The only thing more annoying than those kids at the Chocolate Factory is Charlie’s grandparents

I just discovered Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator was written the year I was born. Apparently a lot of my favorite childhood kids' books were written that year. 1972 seemed to be the year of the fanciful, magical and/or pastoral, nature-oriented kids' book: Watership Down, All Creatures Great and Small, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Frog and Toad #2, Earthsea Cycle #3.

This might explain a few things about me...but then again it more likely has a whole lot more to say about where the American reading public's mind was at the time: fully ensconced in Vietnam and sick of it. It was time for a bit of escapism and Roald Dahl's books provided just that.

This is a sequel of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which picks up right were its predecessor left off, at least story-wise. It does not however pick up and carry on the same level of fantastical fun and frivolity. Remember feeling underwhelmed, not quite as carried away with this one as I did the first (Ironic, considering it takes place in a flying elevator). Perhaps it's because the shine has worn off a bit, the surprises have been sprung and now that the reader knows what to expect in Wonka it all doesn't seem quite as magical. Oh well. Just the same, it's still a fun-as-heck book!

Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator is not a great sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story-wise. However, it has some very funny situations, inventive word usage, and silly story beats. In fact, I would say that one of the best facets about reading Dahl's books aloud is the hilarious word play that becomes evident.

Read any of Dahl's books aloud and the payoff becomes clear, right quick. Here, the Great Glass Elevator has space vehicle tendencies with similar maneuverability. Wonka has grabbed Charlie's family to move them into the chocolate factory, but their course gets diverted to a space hotel?!? The President of the United States has received a message that the hotel is being attacked by Russians, aliens, or something else?

Somewhere along the line, the glass elevator makes it back to the chocolate factory where we get grandparents tempted by anti-aging pills and an invitation to the White House. The story is funny, mostly inane silliness. The sequel is not a must-read, but you will laugh at the Oompa Loompa lyrical wordplay humor and the ridiculous situations.

This was a bedtime readaloud to the kiddos, and frankly, if they hadn't been enjoying it so much, I wouldn't have finished it. All three said they enjoyed it better than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so we had a good hour-long conversation about the perils of recency bias. Kidding. But really, this book is not great. I remember enjoying it as a kid, but adults beware: the plot is a mess, the jokes fall flat (especially the borderline-racist ones), and despite some good moments, the overall impression is that Dahl was more interested in capitalizing off the success of Willy Wonka than telling any kind of a coherent story.

who the hell told roald dahl the thing we liked from charlie and the chocolate factory was...the elevator?

like, here is a definitive ranking for me, personally, of everything i liked in order:
- the sweets (obviously)
- orange guys singing mean songs about children
- someone turning into a blueberry, as a concept
- the idea that a chocolate bar could be life-changing (this was a great life lesson)
- wallpaper you can lick (now this gives me the heebie-jeebies, but then it seemed rad)
- swimming in chocolate (ditto the above statement)
- permission to spend my old age living in a bed with my husband and my kid's spouse's parents (the dream, i guess, at least the lazy part)

notice that nowhere in that list is "whimsical ways to get from one floor of a building to another."

whatever. everything about this book is a disappointment, so at least the title makes that clear upfront.

part of my review books from forever ago and get mad for no reason series