Two books but since the second one picks up right when the 1st one ends I am putting them together in this blog.
Roald Dahl is one of my favorites! LOVE HIS WEIRD SILLY CHILDREN'S BOOKS!!! I don't think I will like any of this weird adult books. Yep I'll pass on those.
To refresh your memory some of his children's books are: BFG, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Those are just his most famous books but my favorite is The Witches. This book was inspired by his grandmother. He also has some really weird cookbooks out too.
This is the strangest little known fact about him. He wrote that horribly scary movie the Gremlins! Kim do you remember that one? Are you still having nightmares?
He was born in 1916, he spent a lot of time in boarding schools but despite that he got a great education in England. His children's book career didn't start until 1960 when he actually had children.
These two books are a sort of autobiography of the memories that stick out most in his childhood and his service during WWII. He was actually born in Wales and is Norwegian. His dad died when he was still young. He loved to ride his bike, eat candy bought from a local sweets shop and he loved playing sports.
When he finished school he got a job in Africa for Shell. He then joined the air defense to fight Hitler. He was very very lucky and had some narrow escapes every day he did that. He hates snakes (because there are quite a few in Africa that almost killed him). He loves giraffe, elephants and all jungle creatures.
Both books were very entertaining. He had a good childhood. He commented a lot on the Head masters at some of the boarding schools and the violence that was common in that time against rule breakers or just poor innocent boys being boys. He still can't get his mind around the spankings and beatings that were allowed at some of his schools. He also had his share for pranks and once was accused of cheating but of course they didn't believe him when he said he wasn't cheating just asking for some ink from the boy next to him.
He had some hard times too. It seems that he was always faced with death of loved ones and sickness. He was a very generous man and learned a lot of compassion and patience. He later helped others in the community and even the world through donations and personal friendships and visits with very sick children.
There is a cool website for his books http://www.roalddahl.com/
Healing Books
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