Monday, March 19, 2012

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

This is yet another post for Adam's Magical March challenge! I've also finished Something Wicked this Way Comes and will review it later in the week, and have just stared Outlander. I'm hoping to finish it, Dragonfly in Amber, The War of the Worlds and The Crystal Cave before the end of the month, but since two of those are quite chunky, that may not happen!

I picked up Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator at a library book sale at some point. I love both Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movies, although I remember being a little disappointed by the actual book when I read it in elementary school. Still, I wanted to see what further adventures Charlie has.

Apparently, Charlie goes on to visit space, fight Vernicious Knids, deal with three of his grandparents take reverse aging vitamins will nasty consequences and head off to the White House. Seriously, what the heck? That makes no sense! It kind of felt like a book for kids with ADD.

I have a confession to make here - I have yet to read a Roald Dahl book that I actually liked. I feel like a terrible person and that I should have be "I'm a reader!" card revoked or something. But I just don't care for his books. Now, I like nonsense stories and silly tales and slightly creepy kids books. I enjoy Dr. Suess and Shel Silverstein and Lewis Carroll and many others, but I guess when you think about it, those aren't nonsense stories. They all have a point. And I suppose Dahl does as well - you can't turn back time - but only part of the book is about that and the rest of it was just random. I felt like I was watching Spongebob or something. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory clearly has several points, so I suppose it's not the nonsense angle that bothers me about his books as a whole. I just can't quite put my finger on it. The other books of his I've read (all when I was a child) were Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, and The BFG. Matilda was my favorite, but I still didn't really care for it. I'm usually a sucker for books with readers in them, and this seems like something I would love, but I just didn't. It just makes me a little sad. Oh well, I have a beloved movie because of him (even if he wasn't happy with it!)!

1 comment:

  1. Oh well, liking Roald Dahl isn't actually a requirement. :) I remember liking the Great Glass Elevator much more than the Chocolate Factory--the Vermicious Knids scared the bejeebers out of me!

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