The 306 Greatest Books #92 - Matilda

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Matilda by Roald Dahl. This book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists.

I rather enjoyed Matilda a lot (my daughter and and I both did). I found this to the best of the Dahl books that were on my list. The story was nice and linear, as opposed to several of his other books which seemed to be more disjointed. The characters were also some of his best and actually made you care about what happened to some of them, which is one sign of a good book. I loved how the story tied up very neatly at the end and how aspects of people's personalities came back in a rather surprising (at least to me) way. The story is about an extremely intelligent 4-5 year-old girl named Matilda. However, she happens to live in a house where her parents don't think anything is possible out of the girl and her school's headmistress hates children. So life kind of sucks for her. But she does have a teacher who goes to bat for her and in return Matilda not only helps the teacher out of a bad situation but helps herself as well. The morals of the story are great and at many points in the book I actually got rather upset at several of the characters. Another great thing about this book, and most of Dahl's works, are the use of larger words. Words you wouldn't typically find in children's books. He uses them in such a way that they fit into the context of the story and the person is able to understand the meaning of the words, just by the context. Matilda is another Dahl book I will add onto my personal Greatest Books list, and actually I think it should be ranked higher than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The 306 Greatest Books #91 - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. This book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is so far my favorite of Dahl's works, and likely to remain that way. I had grown up on Charlie, having seen the original movie countless of times and I actually believe I read the book growing up too, although I couldn't remember any of it. Unlike Dahl's other works, which seemed scattered and more like many mini stories with a common theme, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a cohesive story with great characterization and a fun read. It was also interesting to compare the two movie versions of the book with the book. Despite my love of the original movie it appears that both of the movies had parts that followed the story very closely and both had parts that diverged from the story a lot, however they were often in different places. Overall, a fun, cohesive story, that is a definite must read on my list.

The 306 Greatest Books #90 - The Twits

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Twits by Roald Dahl. This book can be found on the BBC Book list.

The Twits was a rather interesting book, as I've come expect from Dahl. The story follows a married couple who are the most despicable, ugly people you could ever imagine. The things that they do eventually get them into trouble, where they eventually get their just desserts in the end from the trouble they cause. Although Dahl can be a bit gruesome at times, he does go out of his way to never fully describe the gruesome act, just imply it. So, I think this could be a nice book for children to read since it starts off with a very good lesson; that if you continually have ugly thoughts you turn into an ugly person but if you continually have good thoughts you turn into a good looking person, no matter what your outward appearance may be. Overall, not a fantastic book, but it is fun and short, and it is the first book on the list that I read to my daughter.

The 306 Greatest Books #79 - The BFG

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The BFG by Roald Dahl. This book can be found on the Observer and BBC Book Lists.

The BFG is a children's book about a little girl who discovers a Big Friendly Giant (AKA the BFG). Along with the BFG, there are other giants who are not so friendly, well, because they eat people. The plot of the story is that the little girl convinces the BFG to take the bad giants down. I found this to be a rather gruesome story for a child but ended up being a perfect children's book. My main gripe, and this is a general gripe with Dahl, was that the made-up words got to be a bit tiresome after a while. The story has clear cut morality issues and includes a heroine who is just your everyday kid. It is a good story for kids that parents do not need to be too worried about, despite the gruesomeness. Overall, the book was enjoyable, but it was just not my cup of tea.