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Roald Dahl starters


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I admit that I didn't read much Roald Dahl as a child, just Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We read The Minpins as a read aloud last week and my daughter really enjoyed it and immediately reread it on her own. Anyone want to tell me which other Dahl books would work well for a read aloud with a kindergartener?

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I find most of Dahl's books to be for older children. Perhaps The Fantastic Mr. Fox would be alright for a 5 - 6 year old.

 

I love Dahl, and enjoy many of his books (especially his adult short stories). I find a lot of his children's books to be a little too quirky for my tastes, though. I LOVE Danny, the Champion of the World, but I wouldn't do it with a 5 - 6 yo. I think age 9 - 11 would be better.

 

 

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Oh boy. My boys absolutely love Dahl. I don't particularly, but we read them because of their love. Most of them are a bit disturbing in parts, and we read them quite a bit older than K. Most of our Dahl has been read in the last year, and my boys are 10 now. Preview whatever you try. The bad giants in the BFG eat humans, including children. But that one is milder than some others in my mind.

 

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Thanks for the suggestions so far! I'll start adding these to the library reserves so I can check them out.

 

I pre-read (or at least pre-skim) all of our read-alouds. I just don't want to have to pre-read everything Dahl ever wrote in hopes of finding a few that will work and am hoping to get a head start with the suggestions here! We've read the "dark" versions of a number of fairy/folk tales and she loves those.

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The first one I read with Alex was James and the Giant Peach, which she really enjoyed. We were on a weekend vacation and she insisted on reading it every time we had a spare 5- minutes. I was worried about how she would do when the Aunts got squished, but she was fine. We then did Fantastic Mr. Fox the next week:)

 

She liked Danny, The Champion of the World, as well, but her all-time favorite was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Absolutely went crazy for it, so much so that daddy had to be sent out to the bookstore to fetch Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (which I don't actually reccomend...she liked it almost as much, especially the grandparents being turned to babies, but it was definitely lots more explaining to a little one:)

 

She has been asking for Matilda, but she has a list of books she has chosen and I am currently juggling three read-alouds, so I am not sure when/if we will get to that one.

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We like The Witches though it can be quite disturbing.  I waited until the last kiddo was 11yo to read it to her.  

 

My oldest daughter had a book club with Grandma many years ago.  After discussing the book, we ate gjetost cheese (brown goat cheese) on Norwegian crispbread (crackers) and drank blue Kool-Aid.  :)

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With Roald Dahl, the violent bits are so unrealistic and fantastical that I wouldn't worry about them frightening most kids. James's parents die in one sentence that involves a rampaging rhino in London. Miss Trunchbull throws the children by their braids or makes them eat cake until they burst. Mr Wonka lets children's own bad qualities lead them to possible danger so they end up being sucked up a tube in a chocolate river or whatever... My kids have found them fun books and have read them (or been read to) from kindergarten age. I always thought they were kind of refreshing for the way they portray kids in underdog roles but using their cleverness or goodness or magical powers to succeed in the end. But they're not sappy insipid books... They have fun plots and great vocabulary and the language doesn't talk down to kids. He's probably my favorite kids author.

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My six year old listened to The Witches on audiobook numerous times. It was one of her favorites. She liked The Twits as a five year old. We've mostly done audio book versions for Ronald Dahl books. In addition to the ones mentioned we also listened to The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, George's Marvelous Medicine, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

 

I don't recommend The BFG unless you are really good with voices. The majority of the book is a conversation between a giant and a little girl. Natasha Richardson reads it quite well. I would make it boring.

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We do "The Magic Finger" fairly young, but it may not be suitable for your family's values so you would need to preread it to see if it will work for you.

 

I was going to donate "The Witches" to the library book store because of pagan friends and 6yods's lack of verbal filters and chatterbox tendencies. A lot of Dahl's books are like that, so you'll need to choose the ones that are right for your own family and social circles.

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We like all his books--my dad grew up in England, so the rather "English" humor tickled all of us.

 

Fantastic Mr. Fox, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Twits were our favs, and dd like The BFG, too.

I didn't care as much for the sequel to Charlie (....Glass Elevator), and Matilda just wasn't our taste--but the Witches was funny to us.

 

IIWY, I would pick FMrFox.

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She liked Danny, The Champion of the World, as well, but her all-time favorite was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Absolutely went crazy for it, so much so that daddy had to be sent out to the bookstore to fetch Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (which I don't actually reccomend...she liked it almost as much, especially the grandparents being turned to babies, but it was definitely lots more explaining to a little one:)

 

The Vermicious Knids are almost too much for *me*. 

 

DS was very sensitive when he was younger, and never had a major problem with a Roald Dahl book (thought we never tried Great Glass Elevator because of my own knidphobia). We read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Danny, The Champion of the World,  and he's read The Witches on his own. Most or all of these were when he was 7 or younger.

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The Vermicious Knids are almost too much for *me*.

 

DS was very sensitive when he was younger, and never had a major problem with a Roald Dahl book (thought we never tried Great Glass Elevator because of my own knidphobia). We read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Danny, The Champion of the World, and he's read The Witches on his own. Most or all of these were when he was 7 or younger.

LOL, actually dd4 LOVED the Vermicious Knids:). We still make jokes about them. As a pp mentioned, the 'horror' parts of most Dahl stories are so utterly outrageous and absurd that dd4 is giggling hysterically. All the explaining and discussion actually arose from the back-and-forth in the White House, all the little jokes and asides there. And she kept getting irritated because she wanted the story to return to Charlie:)

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The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me would be fun for that young age.

I tried out James and the Giant Peach around the same time (K or 1st) and the parents dying was a bit too difficult for my kiddos. They loved it about 18 months later, however - ðŸ˜.

 

The BFG is hilarious and so is The Twits and the one about the turtles (what was that called?).

Dahl is my daughter's favorite author and has been for years. I can't blame her. Funny, quirky stuff.

 

Matilda is nice a little later, around 1st or 2nd, and so is The Witches.

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I loved the BFG when I was little. I don't remember being afraid of the bad giants. But I read it myself when I was seven, so a little older than kindergarten. I remember it being hilarious and my mother tells me she found it funny to hear me giggling in my bedroom.

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