Matilda

by Roald Dahl

I read this when I was little but have forgotten the story, so re-read it again. My dearest bought the whole set of Roald Dahl books and this is the second one I've read now I think. I read all of them in the past, but my memory being what it is today, it all feels like new books every time I read it. Anyways...

This book is about Matilda Wormwood, a little girl. She is a very smart girl though her parents cannot see that and are very ignorant and unpleasant folk. Matilda being very smart, begins to learn to read and loves reading very much. She starts going to the library on her own and reads all the nice books there is to read there. So by the time she starts school she is already way ahead of her classmates. Her intelligence not only stops there. When the teacher, Miss Honey teaches math, she finds that she can already to amazing some all by herself without even using a calculator! She is indeed very very smart. Miss Honey wishes to help her excel and to put her in a higher class. Though the headmistress Miss Truchbull disagrees and keeps her in the lower class, because she inherently hates little children. There are many twists and turns in this book, and the ending is wonderful.

Anyways, lovely book by Roald Dahl. I love all his books.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More

by Roald Dahl

This is a book with several short stories by Roald Dahl. These are probably more aimed at grown ups, not for kids.

The Boy Who Talked With Animals

This story starts with a man who stays at a hotel in Jamaica. On the beach there was a turtle caught and a boy who wanted the turtle released as he was a special boy and he could understand the thoughts and feelings of animals. This story at the start, when he described Jamaican voodoo, really struck a nerve. I could really feel the spirit of it and the fear.

The Hitch-hiker

 Story of a guy who picks up a stranger and the adventures that followed along that car ride. This is one of my favourite stories. It shows how simplicity of plot and story can bring so much more to what a story can be. I love this story very much.

The Mildenhall Treasure

A true story of a labourer called Gordon Butcher who found ancient Roman artifacts while plowing some farmland. It just goes to show even some really exciting things can happen in real life, and when it does, it really is a story worth telling.

The Swan

This story is about some nasty redneck kids who tortured a poor boy who was their own age. And I thought this story was set in America by how it was written, but from the locations in the story, it was in the UK. Well it was still a very well-written story. And you really feel for the boy. So stories, even without some elaborate plot, when written so beautifully, you really still want to go on the journey.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

This of course is the crown jewel of the book. It is a very lovely story about a man, Henry Sugar, who while staying with a friend, finds a journal describing a great power by a man in India. The man, through intense meditation was able to see without his eyes. And with this journal, Henry Sugar wanted the same powers and so he entered in to a great dedication into meditation as well. From this experience he was successful and his life was never the same again.  This story has a lovely twist, deep and insightful I find of the human soul. And really what is important in life.

Lucky Break
A short autobiography by Roald Dahl of how he came about to writing. He actually never thought of writing and it was a pure accident when he returned from was with sever injuries and could no longer serve the British Airforce. He was then posted to work in America and was asked by a famous writer to talk about his experiences in the war. This was to encourage people to have support for their troops in the war. They discussed it through lunch and found it hard to be taking notes while eating at the same time. So Roald Dahl  promised to write down some notes so the author could write it down properly later. After finishing it, Roald Dahl sent it to the author and several weeks later got a reply. The author said he asked Dahl to write notes, not write the whole story! The author commended Dahl's work and sent it to the publishers without even any alterations and said to Dahl he was a very gifted writer, a gift very rare and should be appreciated. This was how Dahl began writing, by pure accident.

A Piece of Cake
This is the story Dahl ever written as was described in Lucky Break. It is about his experiences while posted in Greece and fighting against the Germans and Italians during WWII. Indeed it was very befitting the title, where his plane was shot down and he endured quite a lot of hardships, but his descriptions of them seem very matter-of-fact, and how could it be any other way. And so everything seemed to be 'a piece of cake' even though what he went through was quite dreadful. He had severe burns form crashing and had lost his nose. It did not particularly highlight any act of heroism but it really gave people a sense of what sort of experience being in a war was. Even from this first story, reading his latter work, you get a sense of his style of writing and how beautiful it is.

All this stories are wonderful, all different and special in their own way. Roald Dahl is one of my favourite writers. I could read his books over and over and still be mesmerized.

James and the Giant Peach

by Roald Dahl

Reading this book for the dA competition which I have no idea what to write still. But at least finished reading another Dahl book. This is one of the least like out of all of Dahl books for me.

The story is about James Trotter whose parents were tragically so he had to move to stay with his Aunts, Spiker and Sponge. They treat him horribly and make him work day and night, not let him play with other children and even beat him. James was very, very sad. One day he meets a strange old man who give him a bag of magical crystals. After eating it the old man said, James would be the happiest boy in the world. As he rushed into the kitchen to prepare the crystals, he tripped and fell. All the crystals fell to the ground and was swallowed by the ground immediately. This cause the dead peach tree that the ground was on to produce a single peach which grew to be gigantic. This peach created a whole lot of peculiar things to happen and a wonderful adventure followed.

The problem I have with this book is firstly, the characters seem a bit scattered. Like the introduction of Cloud men very late in the book, and a major part at that made the story seemed patched together. And the old man that gave James the crystals were never seen again.

Second is one use style. He put the story as one peculiar thing led to another more peculiar thing, and another even more peculiar thing. Would have like to see that he used this 'peculiarity' as marker for each phase of peculiar events.

Lastly I think there was an overuse of songs and rhymes. A certain amount is entertaining but having too much just sort of breaks the pace of the story, which I would prefer to be a hundred miles an hour!

All in all, it is still a Dahl book so the standard of writing is always there and the story is also typical Dahl-esque. Quite enjoyable.

Danny the Champion of the World

by Roald Dahl

Another wonderful book by Roald Dahl. I love this one a lot, as much as Matilda and BFG. This book is about Danny and his dad. I love this story very much. Even though it is simple, it's really lovely and heart warming. The way he talks about curling up with a hot choc, makes you want to do it to. And also, makes you remember what's really important in life. Anyways the main plot is this. Danny's a boy whose mother passed away young. So he is raised by his dad. They own a pump station and garage, and do many wonderful thigns together. One day his dad tells him a deep dark secret and obsession. He loves poaching! And after that he teaches Danny lots about poaching. And the largest field for it is owned by the mean Mr. Hazzell. So Danny comes up with an ingenious plan to get the better of Mr. Hazzell and his pheasants. Wonderful adventure this book is. Lovely. And again lovely illustration by Quentin Blake.

George's Marvellous Medicine

by Roald Dahl

Read this several days ago. Well, I've always loved Roald Dahl so pulled it from the library and read it again. This one's about George, a little boy who has a nasty grandma. So 'improves' his grandma's medicine with his own marvellous recipe. It causes weird things to happen to the grandma. Then he tries it on his father's farmyard animals also and amazing things happened. His dad was really happy. And in the end, well the ending was marvellous also. Marvellous book! And also I absolutely love Quentin Blake's illustrations.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox!!!! Yes, fantastic. Reviewing of movies is not what I normally do as I watch so many movies and am too lazy to review every single movie I watch. Thus this is a break from the norm. I am reviewing this movie because it is one of the most fantabulous movies I have ever watched.

This movie is based on the book by Roald Dahl. It is about well, the fantastic Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox is a chicken thief turned newspaper columnist. This switch was because his wife was pregnant and thieving was not a responsible job. But Mr. Fox being a fox and so always had an eye to go with a boom and decided to go for one last masterplan to steal from the three meanest farmers around; Boggis, Bunce and Bean. This plan brought about a change not only to the family but also the whole neighbourhood of animals.

A great movie with everything in it. Also, one point of note. The script is refreshing, witty and charming. Given it was from a children's book, one would expect the 'dumbing down' of things. This is not the case, very wonderfully written script. Also, there are so many layers of storytelling to this that I was never bored. Heck, I was smiling like an idiot at the screen for the whole movie. Watch it. It's good. Very fantastically good.