Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I’ve been chomping at the bit to get my kids interested in reading books that aren’t carried by the illustrations, and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY was the book that finally got us over that hurdle! My 4-year-old stayed engaged and followed the story, even brought it up and talked about the characters at times that we were not reading. Even my son (almost 3) generally paid attention, but mostly because he follows his sister’s lead. Other books we’ve tried recently were too long-winded or slow to keep my daughter’s attention, but Roald Dahl’s masterpiece was a hit. I think the vividness of the exaggerated, one-dimensional characters helps young readers/listeners cement the characters into their minds, providing strong anchors to help keep focused on the story. This is particularly true if you can give each of the characters their own recognizable voice when reading this one out loud!My kids’ favorite part of the book was when the squirrels threw Veruca Salt (and her parents!) down the garbage shoot. I bring that up when the kids start whining about something, reminding them that it was the parents’ spoiling of Veruca that made her into such an insufferable brat! The Oompa-Loompas and their long, complex songs were not as funny as I remembered, and I could tell the kids were pretty much waiting for them to be over so the story could resume. This surprised me since I seemed to remember them being my favorite part. Maybe I just didn’t do them justice in my attempts to sing like an Oompa-Loompa!The lessons conveyed by CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY are simple but important. Behave with respect, dignity, and politeness and try not to be like Augustus, Veruca, Violet, of Mike, each of whom personify excess, disrespect, selfishness and unhealthy habits. I can’t recommend this book highly enough if you’re looking for an easy-to-follow, short book to read out loud to children! It has simple black-and-white illustrations every few pages, something to look at but not stare at continually, so it is a good book for transitioning from picture books to chapter books.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a story I've known for many years from the two movie versions, particularly the Gene Wilder movie I first saw as a child. It's such a joy to finally read the original book as an adult. Dahl had a sardonic sense of humor and could be quite cruel to some of his child characters. But the book is full of whimsy and imagination. Though we don't get Leslie Bricusse's songs, we do get some very funny ones from the Oompa Loompas themselves. And Dahl's amusingly primitive illustrations are perfect at capturing how he imagined the characters to look as opposed to the Hollywood versions that are so familiar to us by now. A true treasure with some biting satire, pointing the finger at some familiar targets that still ring true today, ranging from binge watching TV to overeating to selfishness, greed and ostentatious displays of wealth. Dahl has fun with each of them, but keeps the story entertaining rather than preachy. And just the names of the characters like Willy Wonka, Veruca Salt, Augustus Bloop and Mike Teevee are amusing in themselves. A short read, but a fun one.

I bought this book for my daughter, she had a book report on this. At first, we watched both the old movie and the remake. After discussing what we watched in the movies we didn't care for either of them and felt that both movies had hidden messages that expressed current worldly views about what's right, what's wrong and what's fair. So we decided on buying the book. Because movie writers tend to take creative licences and change things to fit their own way of thinking as well as to push a particular idea. For example, in the old movie, the grandfather told Charlie to disobey and drink the soda. Even though they were told not to do so by Mr Wonker. Then the Grandfather also got upset at Mr Wonker for not giving Charly the prise because he had disobeyed. Do you see anything wrong with that way of thinking??? This book, however, was not only properly written, but it also was perfect in the lessons that it teaches about behaviour and being thankful. If you want your children to have really GODLY Values and morals, this book is a good way to start. She has since read it more than once and also scored a 100 on her book report.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a story to be read again and again. It captures Dahl's excellence in making a hero out of the least popular child around. This is a great tale to reinforce that wealth does not trump poverty and that good guys can finish first. Reading this book in secondary school helps students grasp the deeper meanings of themes, symbols and motifs that can be missed at first glance.-- Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti

I didn’t read this book as a child, so now that I have children of my own, we really loved reading this book together. It is written in a way that young and old can enjoy it.It’s about a young boy's journey to winning a tour through the chocolate factory in his town. There are plenty of times where we laughed out loud at the ridiculous imagination of Roald Dahl. We are going to order the next one in the series so we can see what else happens!

I've seen both versions of the Chocolate Factory movies but I don't think I've read the book since I was a little girl, so I decided to buy and re-read. This version of Wonka is absolutely zany and unpredictable, I found myself gawking and laughing at his behavior at times, but he also seemed sincerely concerned about each of the rotten kids that go to the factory. Charlie is sweet and likable, Grandpa Joe was hilarious and childlike. Everything that happens is imaginative and stunning! You've got to read it to believe it!

I ordered this book as a gift thinking it was a normal sized paperback (I didn't look at the size before ordering) with the odd coloured illustration, but when it arrived it was a lovely surprise to find it's a large paperback book (26.4 cm x 19.8 cm) and all of the actual pages are multi-coloured (lovely ice cream colours) and then all of the illustrations (and they are on every page) are coloured too !! A fantastic story and a beautiful book. (my photo's are a bit rubbish and don't do the colours justice)

This story is about a boy named Charlie Bucket who lived with his family. His family barely managed to survive with very little money. There would be some days when Charlie would survive on cabbage soup or just starve. His life was totally miserable....But there was on thing that made Charlie happy and that was the smell of the chocolate factory, he used to pass by, twice a day while going and coming back from school. He always used to look at the giant chocolate factory and was eager to know that how would it look from inside...The chocolate factory, belonged to Willy Wonka who manufactured the most magical, mouth watering, beautiful and scrumptious chocolates in the whole world. One day, he held a contest for children where he announced that a Golden Ticket would be hidden underneath the ordinary wrapping paper of 5 ordinary bars of chocolate. The 5 lucky finders of these 5 Golden tickets would earn a free day tour in his giant chocolate factory and would also be allowed to see the secrets and magic of his factory...A visit to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory is nothing less than a dream come true for any child in the world. His chocolate factory is every chocolate lover's paradise...Who would be the 5 luckiest kids who would get a chance to win a free day tour to the chocolate factory ?Would Charlie be one those 5 kids who would win a day tour to the chocolate factory ?..This book is soo good that after reading it you are surely going to crave for chocolates 😜😜..I give 5 / 5.

Fantastic book!!! Loved reading it with my seven year old daughter. I bought it because she wanted to do a book box on this book for world book day. I was not sur she will enjoy it. But I am happy to say I was absolutely wrong. She loved every page of it. We have been reading about three chapters a day. She now knows exactly what she wants in her book box..... love how Roald Dahl has taken her and me on a journey. We got the couloured version. I was wondering why the couloirs version was 160 pages and the normal one was 200. Wondered if it was a truncated version. The truth is, it is a bigger book and can take more words than the normal book hence the lesser number of pages. Wanted to mention in case some else also wondered. I would recommend the coloured edition. It is more expensive than the normal one but totally worth it as the children can see the couloirs in the picture when Mr Wonka takes them through the journey. Happy reading everyone.

This 8+ years reading age novel has been recently read in instalments to my 6-year-old daughter at bedtime. First published in 1964, it describes an Austerity Britain not too dissimilar to today's, as young Charlie Bucket's impoverished family struggle to make ends meet. When the family begin to starve, my daughter indignantly wanted to know why he wasn't getting food at school, and I could only speculate that free school dinners and food banks hadn't come in yet.Charlie lives down the street from a chocolate factory - Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, the most amazing and most secretive in the world. The smell of melting chocolate in the air drives him wild with both hunger and curiosity. (Living downwind of a biscuit factory, I know what he means!) Mr Wonka announces a competition where the winners of five golden tickets get a free trip to the factory and a lifetime supply of sweets, and the excesses of modern childhood appear in the winners as comedic representatives of greed, materialism, bad manners, and self-absorption win the tickets..... and the final one is found by Charlie, for the most amazing adventure possible.Roald Dahl spins a modern fairy tale as the scenes depicted within the magical factory are each more colourful and more zany than the last, with many jokes and puns and acidic comments, and several "Revolting Rhymes"-style poems, as sung by the Oompa-Loompas. It is a bit dark, but not excessively so for junior-school aged children. My daughter was barracking for Charlie every step of the way, and was so happy when good things happened to him, that she was turning somersaults around the room.

Other reviewers were excited to receive a large-sized, colour-illustrated version. But I just received a normal paperback version with a few black/white illustrations on some pages. I didn’t need the fancy version and the description didn’t promise it but it was disappointing anyway.