#Booky100Keepers Day 65: "The Books of Roald Dahl"

Sometimes it almost feels rude to include such well known authors on our #Booky100Keepers list - as if we're following some herd mentality about books that aren't actually that good, just including them in the list 'because we feel we have to'.

That's not really the case with Roald Dahl. Dahl is in our list because both my wife and I have had our own copies of Dahl's books for years - way before we started reading them to, and sharing them with C.

Weirdly though the ReadItDaddy Dahl love-in didn't begin with the book you'd think of first. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" seems like the obvious go-to for anyone wanting to begin reading Dahl, but we actually found C loved the girl in "The Magic Finger" way before she had any appreciation for the mouth-watering descriptions of Wonka bars in the aforementioned best seller.

Girl's magic powers were an impossible to resist story mechanic, as was her awesome sense of social justice. So much so that when C's junior school had its first world book day, and the first set of dress-up duties we as parents would inevitably be drawn into, we had the easy and difficult task of trying to visualise Girl from the story (I mean exactly how do you 'make' a magic finger? We came up with a cardboard prop in the end and of course it didn't win any sort of class award, the kid who bought their costume off Ebay won - as they always do).

So yes we did eventually read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - strangely subdued in its reception by the boss of this blog, but "Matilda" was an entirely different matter. A bookish girl with magic powers? Yeah we're seeing a theme. In fact Matilda lit a fire under C's imagination, probably the single Dahl book she's returned to again and again.

With a taste for the darker stuff, it also goes without saying that "The Witches" is a clear favourite.

Who can possibly resist a dark and twisted children's story where the villains of the piece - a conference of nasty witches plotting the demise of all kids everywhere - are actually the real stars of the story, not so much the young boy who ends up transformed into a mouse by these nefarious creatures.

Perhaps there's something to be said for movie adaptations of Dahl's books, as the movie version of "The Witches" is utterly brilliant - and I think is a huge reason why C loves the book so much.

Finally, well worth a mention is "George's Marvellous Medicine" - One of my own favourite Dahl books - because of a rather spirited and brilliant reading on ancient kids TV programme Jackanory by one Rik Mayall (oh how I miss that guy, and wish he'd read more books on that hallowed proggy).

I hadn't realised it at the time but I'd been channelling Rik's version of George's granny when I read the books aloud to C when she was a tiny toddler.

Dahl is an expert at producing the most irresistible baddies for his books (aided by Quentin Blake's masterful squiggly illustrations of course), and you've got to wonder how many of them were drawn from actual people he knew (the likely answer is 'most of them').

George's Grandma is a real piece of work - A cantankerous old soul who demands tea made just so (I had a Nan like that though she was lovely, not an evil old crone like George's).

George concocts a brew she'll never forget, using every item he finds around the house (as Dahl was sagely forced to write in the afterword and forewords of this book - "Don't try this at home, kids!") - which has the effect of turning his Grandma into a stretched-out monster. Finally she shrinks away to nothing - but can George perform the same miracle on the family's chickens to net them a healthy profit? It's a completely crazy story and not one that comes up in most people's fave lists of Dahl titles, but it's excellent stuff.

So many authors have been touted as "The Next Roald Dahl" (David Walliams isn't quite fit to lick the big man's boots though it's obvious who his biggest influence is).

Truth be told there will never be another Roald, the children's publishing industry plays it way too safe to allow the sort of anarchic mayhem and purely evil characters you find in Dahl's books any more.

Original Review Links:

ReadItDaddy has an absolute Dahl-ing day out at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, Great Missenden, Bucks

"Roald Dahl's Opposites" by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake (Puffin)

Happy Roald Dahl Day! Here's our review of "Billy and the Minpins" by Roald Dahl and Sir Quentin Blake (Puffin Books)

The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl (Puffin Books)

George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl (Puffin Books)

ReaditDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 4th April 2014 - "The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me" by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake (Puffin Books)

"James and the Giant Peach" - a Special Roald Dahl Day Review (Puffin Books)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book and Early Readers Roundup - April 2015

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Pop-up edition) by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake (Puffin Books)