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Best Dahl books?


pocjets
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How old/mature is your dd? Because I know that our ds really liked Charlie and the Chocolate factory, but when we re-read our favorite Dahl books from our own childhood (and several that we hadn't been familiar with), we were struck very quickly by the fact that he was not even close to developmentally ready to read the others (possibly excepting Charlie and the great glass elevator and most of James and Giant peach). There was just lots of name-calling and some fairly scary scenes, depending on how sensitive your kid is. Disclaimer: our kids are super sensitive (as evidenced by their crying in Ice age when the baby gets taken from its family at the beginning, or their crying in Tinkerbell and the great fairy rescue when Tink and the girl separate, just as two examples.

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How old/mature is your dd? Because I know that our ds really liked Charlie and the Chocolate factory, but when we re-read our favorite Dahl books from our own childhood (and several that we hadn't been familiar with), we were struck very quickly by the fact that he was not even close to developmentally ready to read the others (possibly excepting Charlie and the great glass elevator and most of James and Giant peach). There was just lots of name-calling and some fairly scary scenes, depending on how sensitive your kid is. Disclaimer: our kids are super sensitive (as evidenced by their crying in Ice age when the baby gets taken from its family at the beginning, or their crying in Tinkerbell and the great fairy rescue when Tink and the girl separate, just as two examples.

 

She is 10. I don't love name-calling and I've heard some of his books were "tacky" for a lack of a better word so I was hoping to get a good list here. I don't particularly mind "scary" though. Thank you!

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Matilda and The BFG were our favorites (in addition to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).  Danny Champion of the World is also very good.  The rest of them are good too, and well worth reading, but not not quite up to these.  James and the Giant Peach starts out very well but then sort of loses it in the middle.

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My Roald Dahl fan loved all the books except for BFG. That she didn't even finish. She is saving Matilda for later. She saw part of the movie and heard the sound track from the musical and thinks it's too sad.

The book of poems is great too!

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My DD has been reading them all, starting with the shorter ones - her favourites though were The Witches and The BFG.

I liked the Magic Finger when I was very young, but by 10 Matilda, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, James and the Giant Peach are probably more suitable. You can also get her to read Boy and Going Solo at that age - usually though these two are read after some exposure to his fiction.

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My sensitive kid was scared to read some of them - he was upset for a couple of days when the farmer shot the Fox's tail off in Fantastic Mr. Fox. Not all kids are as sensitive, so if yours are not, this is the list I recommend:

Matilda

Fantastic Mr. Fox

BFG

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

 

 

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I'll vote for all of them, right down to The Twits. The slim volumes really brought chapter books alive for my kids. They are quirky and unusual, which is exactly what endeared them to us. :001_smile: 

 

The name-calling gave us some fabulous examples of why you shouldn't, and none of my kids felt the need to start calling people ridiculous names.

 

 

DS/10th did briefly complain about The Witches when he first read it eons ago. He read it nonstop until he finished it, totally sucked in! Then he told me, "I can't believe you told me to read something like that,. I'm never reading that again," with the most horrified expression. LOL Now he remembers it fondly and even suggested DD/1st try it, so he couldn't have been too scarred. ;)

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I actually always thought his stuff was really weird as a kid. But I loved (loved, loved) Danny Champion of the World, so it was one of the first novels my oldest read (it followed his bird obsession at the time) and he loved it too. I also really liked the Minpins, though the version we had was a picture book, which might be too young for your guy. 

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