In my opinion, the best Roald Dahl book is Matilda.

Such a wonderful book. And the film adaptation is lovely, too--the recent bout of gobbling down Dahls has made me appreciate it even more; it's full of echoes of and little nods to not only the novel Matilda but all the Roald Dahliness of all his kid's books and his life. Clearly a labor of love.

I realize now that everything I read (and imagined) was very real to me and most of Dahl's books have some pretty crappy stuff hapening to nice kids and that made me sad. Anyone else have that problem?

I was going to say that his books remind me of Time Bandits for some reason- that seems to be the reason. Not that I don't remember liking his books just the same.

I used to think that because I didn't like his stuff I must not have a a very good imagination. I realize now that everything I read (and imagined) was very real to me and most of Dahl's books have some pretty crappy stuff hapening to nice kids and that made me sad. Anyone else have that problem?

That would have been me.

I always associated Raold Dahl with Shel Silverstein. Maybe because of all the weird stuff that happens to kids.

Horrible things happen to the kids, and horrible things happen to the adults.

Which extends past his kids books. He's a horrible man.

I like Danny the Champion of the World best of all of Dahl, I think, because it is the gentlest of his stories. Also, it was the least likely to set up a preposterous situation for the express purposes at taking cruel potshots at parental figures. Even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a little too preposterous and cruel for me, even when I was 11 years old.

(BTW, the film version of Danny, with Jeremy Irons as the dad, was quite good.)

There is certainly a strain of amusing cruelty in children's books throughout history, right up to Lemony Snicket. But I think I always saw through the "amusingness" of Dahl's cruelty, and into some raw open wound of the author's own life.

I hate it when I can guess major biographical events/problems/desires in an author's life purely by a sampling of plot-events in his works. It's a reason why I try not to read two books by the same author in a row, and sometimes not within a year, so that I'll have forgotten enough between them.

I remember enjoying the hell out of Shel Silverstein partly because of all the horrible crap that happened to kids just like me. It felt like there was an adult who was treating me, in turn, like an adult and not pulling any punches with me. I liked that alot.

I hate it when I can guess major biographical events/problems/desires in an author's life purely by a sampling of plot-events in his works.

I think Stephen King threw elements of his car accident and hospitalization into a bunch of his works at that time.

It felt like there was an adult who was treating me, in turn, like an adult and not pulling any punches with me. I liked that alot.

Not at all similar to Shel Silverstein, but I got the same thing from Paula Danziger. The plots and dialogue were so true and real. Her stories never felt dumbed down. The Cat Ate My Gymsuit was my fav.

I thought Christopher Paolini's Eragon had that same kind of feel (in that the language felt natural, not too adult, not to childish) and I'm wondering if that was a factor of his age or if his style will continue in that same vein.

Even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a little too preposterous and cruel for me, even when I was 11 years old.

It's incredibly cruel to the preposterous parents of the four horrid children, but on adult re-read I was struck by how very gentle the story of the Bucket family was--a scrabbling, overcrowded, underemployed family of seven who are slowly starving to death, each trying to put the best possible face on it and be the least burdensome to the others, all the grown-ups (even the most querulous of the grandparents) deeply invested in little subterfuges and pretenses to shield the awfulness of it all from Charlie.

When I was a kid, I just loved the story; this time, reading with adult eyes, I was just about broken by his family's efforts to protect him. And the paragraph about Charlie beginning to starve in earnest and becoming very slow and careful and methodical about everything he does, all his attention focused on how best to conserve what little energy he has... gah.