Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Common Sense Note
Vividly told wild ride of a story keeps kids excited and laughing. Amusing cartoonlike sketches add to the story. A creative, quirky tale about unforgettable characters, described in rich, fanciful language. Various forms of bad behavior are demonstrated--and the punishments perfectly fit the crimes.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Stephany Aulenback
Rarely, if ever, has a morality tale been dressed up in such an entertaining story. Dahl clearly has a point to make here, but never does the reader feel he is preaching; he's just reveling in giving spoiled kids their most perfectly just comeuppance.
Famous for his nasty characters, Dahl has peopled these pages with some highly memorable bad children. Readers everywhere love to laugh with glee at their crazy behavior--and its consequences. Joseph Schindelman's warm and quirky illustrations perfectly match the characters, and are far superior to those of Quentin Blake in this edition.
In the best fairy-tale tradition, Dahl doesn't hide the fact that the world can be a grim and unfair place. Charlie's depressing life of poverty at the beginning of the novel reflects this bleak view. But, also in the best fairy-tale tradition, Dahl appeals to the strong sense of natural justice in children, and invites them to revel in a marvelously imagined world where people, both good and bad, get exactly what they deserve.
In this case, the imagined world is the chocolate factory, where elfin factory workers, known as Oompa-Loompas, row Charlie, Grandpa Joe, and the others down a chocolate river in a yacht made out of a giant pink boiled sweet. It's a marvelous world where they make "eatable marshmallow pillows," "hot ice cream for cold days," "fizzy lifting drinks" that make you float, and "rainbow drops" that let you "spit in six different colours." And, in the end, it's just the place for Charlie.
Plot Summary:
Poor Charlie Bucket is practically starving to death, but his luck changes for the better when he wins a lifetime supply of candy--and a chance to visit Willy Wonka's fabulous, top-secret chocolate factory. This charming, irreverent tale, one of Roald Dahl's best, has captivated children for more than thirty years.
Five lucky people who find a Golden Ticket wrapped in one of Willy Wonka's wonderful candy bars win a visit to his mysterious chocolate factory. Charlie Bucket is too poor to buy more than one candy bar a year, so when he wins a ticket, his whole family celebrates.
The four other lucky children are not as nice as Charlie, and they're punished for their bad behavior. Greedy Augustus Gloop falls into the chocolate river he's trying to drink from and gets sucked up a pipe. Chewing-gum addict Violet Beauregarde grabs a stick of gum that blows her up into a giant blueberry. Spoiled Veruca Salt is deemed a "bad nut" by Wonka's trained squirrels and thrown in the garbage. And Mike Teavee demands to be "sent by television" and gets shrunk in the process. But there's a wonderful surprise waiting for Charlie at the end of the tour.
Related Books:
Sequel
Charlie
and the Great Glass Elevator
Roald Dahl Also
Wrote
James and the Giant Peach
The
Twits
Books With Similar Themes
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
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Willy
Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory
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