Book Review: The BFG By Roald Dahl

Children’s literature is the precedent for the development of all children. Children’s literature varies from poetry to children’s picture books. Every aspect of children’s literature gives an ability to grow a child mentally and develop their ideas and imagination. In early literature, children were romanized to be perfect and well behaved. Author Maurice Sendak counters the idea of a perfect child in his book “Where The Wild Things Are”. Sendak uses his picture book to illustrate a child’s ability to have feelings of anger, resentment, and frustration. The interviewer, Patrick F. Roughen of Red Feather Journal states that“Where the Wild Things Are (1963) contains some of the earliest attempts in children’s literature to represent the intrapsychic challenges of the lives of children. Anger, frustration, and the complexities of parent-child relationships can be found throughout its pages”. “Where the Wild Things Are” reinforces the idea that children are capable of emotions that one would imagine are only depicted in the adult world.

In Michael Chabon’s “Kids’ Stuff,” he is discussing how comic books have changed. Chabon starts off with different varieties of comic books and how they’re widely viewed. He then talks about how comic books have changed to appeal more towards adult readers. He also says that when comic books were aimed at kids there were huge sales, but now comics aimed at adults have less sales and is declining. He refuses to believe that comic books from the past would not appeal to kids today. Chabon then gives four principles that he believes hold true for successful children’s literature. He suggests that publishers should put out comic books for children, about children. Chabon’s argument is, “I suggest that a publisher should try putting out a

In the modern world, children’s literature, fairy tales, and fiction books influence our childhood and early development. In the 1500’s and 1600’s no children’s literature for entertainment existed, they had educational books. As babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, my parents and teachers read us books after books. It is proven that reading to young kids is important for their imagination, vocabulary, and communication skills in early life.

The boy agreed, and discovers that the man knew about the treasure the dream reader was talking about, and knew a lot about the boy and where he is from. After conversing with him for some time, he finds out that he is king, and that he helps people with their personal legends.

Since the view of childhood changes in the nineteenth century, the potential of children’s literature becomes evident. With the reference to the sources of children’s literature, they can be traced back to alterations in translation and in the literature for adults, where a child or childhood are essential concepts; moreover folk literature is concerned to be a wide source for this literary genre. According to Peter Hunt

'The Landlady' is a short story about a young lad called Billy travelling to Bath on a business trip. He arrives in Bath in the evening and looks for accommodation. Bath was an unfamiliar place to Billy so he was unsure of the area. Billy was guided by a porter who recommended the 'Bell and Dragon' because it was close by, but Billy never went. Although the landlady offered cheap prices and cosy surroundings, she changes her attitude towards Billy as the story unfolds. He then realises that this landlady doesn't appear to be all that she seems to be. He begins to become concerned during his stay but never manages to uncover the landlady's secret before she murders the young lad.

Anyone can write a book. But capturing the attention of young kids from 0-8 can prove challenging. However, some authors have written some books that are worthy of a Caldecott or Newbery Medal. Whether the book receives an award or medal the importance is a child opening up the book to discover laughter, fantasy, and truths.

Another interesting trend in children’s literature is mixing of genres, such as mixing cartoons and novels, which may be

Geisel is thought to be one of the best children’s book authors. “For most people the thought of growing up in a world without Green Eggs and Ham, Grinches, and Cats in Hats is barely conceivable” (Levine 10). Children throughout the world have grown up with the wonderful books created by “Dr. Seuss”. “These odd creations occupy a special place in the earliest memories of children around the world” (Levine 10). He has been able to not only capture their minds but their hearts as well. Geisel’s colorful imagination, upbeat rhymes, and unique illustrations seem to have no limits. He has written books that range from simply humorous to impressively insightful. This has contributed greatly in him selling more than 200 million copies. To many “Dr. Seuss is by far the best-selling children’s author to date, and perhaps the most beloved” (Levine

Roald Dahl uses humour in children books he writes to manipulate the reader’s perception of events that occur in the books. The book, Boy is an autobiography written by Roald Dahl. It was his first book and it is a combination of real events in his life. Matilda is one of his fictional books that he wrote later on. Dahl uses events that are actually gruesome and quite horrifying and makes them humorous by using sarcasm, hyperboles, short sentences, imagery, similes and juxtapositions (rose96, 2011). Dahl uses a lot of adjectives to describe the characters in his books to portray them in a humorous way. He uses figures of speech to describe a character and to make this character unique.

challenges and trials. With her companions she is encounters IT, a dark force of evil who dreams

Children’s literature has existed for as long as there have been stories to be told to children. Stories, books, songs, poems are all made for children. Children’s literature does not have a definite definition of what it is; basically, it is anything a child reads (Lerer, 2008). Children begin to learn what reading and writing are used for before even knowing how the system works. Children recognise the function of written language by seeing examples of written language that are being used around them. Many children know the difference between reading and talking, they are aware that written language is used to do things in this world (Emitt, Zbaracki, Komesaroff and Pollock, 2015). Quintilian, John Locke, Saint Augustine and Doctor Seuss speculated on the ways children learn the Australian language and learn about their lives from literature (Lerer, 2008). In fact, Lerer states that “the history of children’s literature is inseparable from the history of childhood, for the child was made through texts and tales he/she studied, heard and told back,” (2008, p.1). Children’s literature nurtures an understanding of narrative structures and visual images played in storytelling, this helps develop

Roald Dahl is well known as a children's author that wrote whimsical stories and created amazing fictional worlds. Some people may never think about the fact that before writing many of his great pieces, Roald Dahl actually wrote many short stories that were influenced by his traumatic and intriguing childhood; most of these stories were not as child-friendly as one might imagine. One of the most prominent examples would be in his story “Beware of the Dog”. In this story, there is a man that is in the air force who is fighting in World War 2 and lost a leg in a plane crash, due to being shot down. In the short story, “He throttled back, pulled off his helmet, undid his straps, and pushed the stick hard over to the left. The Spitfire

people are not what they appear to be. Dahl's works for children are usually told from the

Throughout the 20th century, there have been many wonderful authors. But there is one author that has written many great books that lots of people still read today. His name is Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl is a famous children’s book author. He has written many fantastic children’s books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda. I believe that Roald Dahl is one of the best children’s book authors because he has lots of creativity and inspiration for his stories.