Reading a Roald Dahl book can drive you into an entirely new world of imagination and your creativity would discover wings. Here, you would have women growing moustaches, people with duck like heads, or riding up in giant glass elevators or chasing huge peaches or perhaps even visiting chocolate factories.
Biography
Born on September 13 in 1916, Roald Dahl soon became known as the foremost name in children's books. Voted as UK's No. 1 favourite author, and probably the world's favourite too, Dahl was born of Norwegian parents and started work at the Shell Oil Company, before becoming a fighter pilot in the World War II. He began to write thanks to the “monumental bash in the head” which he got when was a pilot.
Some of Dahl's best known books include “James and the Giant Peach”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “The Magic Finger,” “Charlie and the Glass Elevator”, “Fantastic Mr Fox”, “The Twits”, “The BFG”, “The Witches” and “Matilda.”
And some of his books have been made into movies, such as “James And The Giant Peach”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “The Witches”, “Matilda”, “Danny The Champion of the World”, “The BFG” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox”. The most famous among these is “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, which was made for the celluloid twice with the recent one starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.
His autobiography came out in two parts, namely “Boy” and “Going Solo”. The books describe the period of his life from birth until leaving school. They focus on living conditions in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s, the public school system at the time, and how his childhood experiences led him to writing as a career.
A few schools and children's libraries have got into the Roald Dahl act as well. “We are looking at Dahl as PYP Std. IV's “Author Study” choice.
Work out
The class will be divided according to levels and each level will do a book by him like a reading group. The class would then share the story with the others,” says Ms Damayanti Mukherjee, senior teacher, English and Language Arts, Aga Khan Academy.
“We already did a small session on Roald Dahl, where we had kids from different schools come in to discuss his style of writing and his stories,” says Swetha, Programme Director, Treasure House, Children's Library and Experience Centre.
