Roald Dahl

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Roald Dahl

• Sophia Smith-Savedoff
• Sydney Morton
• Hannah Kast

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Biography
Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916 in
Llandaff, South Wales. He passed away on November
23, 1990 in Oxford, England. When Roald was four
years old his father past away and he was sent to
a boarding school in England. Roald attended
numerous boarding schools due to his mischievous
behavior. After secondary education, Roald
refused an offer from his mother to attend Oxford
or Cambridge University because he wanted to
start his career.
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Becoming an Author

• Roald followed his career as a business man to a
  series of different countries including Egypt,
  where he suffered a severe head injury in a plane
  accident.
• Roald was sent to Washington, D.C. to recover and
  start a new job, which is where he began writing
  for the Saturday Evening Post.
• Roald Dahl wrote his first children's novel, The
  Gremlins, in 1943.

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Well Known Titles

• Georges Marvelous Medicine
• James and the Giant Peach
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Matilda
• The Witches
• The BFG
• The Book of Ghost Stories

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Influences

•     English boarding schools with harsh
  discipline
• (and even abuse) lead to stories of heroic
  children
• and evil adults
•  
• At one of his schools, Cadbury Co. would have
• boys test chocolatesa favorite with Dahl. 
• Chocolate makes a recurring appearance
• in many of his novels.

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Criticisms

•  
• two dimensional characters
• problematic portrayal of adults
• accusations of ageism, sexism and racism
• grotesque and violen
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• http//scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/fall98/ro
  yer.html

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Roald Dahl on Reading and Writing
If you are going to get anywhere in life you
have to read a lot of books.   Writing is all
propaganda, in a sense. You can get at greediness
and selfishness by making them look ridiculous.
The greatest attribute of a human being is
kindness, and all the other qualities like
bravery, and perseverance are secondary to
that.    
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Roald Dahl on Writing for Children

• "I only write about things that are exciting or
  funny. Children know Im on their side.
•  
• If you want to remember what its like to live
  in a childs world, youve got to get down on
  your hands and knees and live like that for a
  week. Youll find you have to look up at all
  these giants around you who are always telling
  you what to do and what not to do.
•  
• http//www.jubileebooks.co.uk/jubilee/magazine/aut
  hors/roald_dahl/roald_dahl.asp

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Dahl's Writing Reviewed

• Roald Dahl addressed his child readers over the
  heads and behind the backs of disapproving
  adults, and they loved him for it. He reveled in
  the vulgar and disgusting, drawing delighted
  cries of yuck with his graphic descriptions of
  food caught in the beard of Mr Twit.
• The Independent
•  
• Dahl books, strong on plot and instilled with a
  tremendous sense of mischief, insist on seeing
  the world through childrens eyes, and often
  portray adults as silly, uncomprehending or
  insensitive no wonder kids love them.
• Sainsburys - The Magazine
•  
•  http//www.jubileebooks.co.uk/jubilee/magazine/au
  thors/roald_dahl/roald_dahl.asp

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Resources for Teachers

• http//www.roalddahl.com/
• Roald Dahls website, includes biography, photos,
  interviews, books and more
• http//www.webenglishteacher.com/dahl.html
• Includes links to biographic information and
  lesson plans for individual books

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More Resources

• http//litplans.com/authors/Roald_Dahl.html
• Links to literature plans for Roald Dahls well
  known books
• http//www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001656.
  shtml
• Database of literature plans and biographical
  information- separates by book

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Final Teacher Resources

• http//www.roalddahlfans.com/teachers.php
• Collection of literature plans, separated by
  books and short stories

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The BFG
Young Sophie is snatched by a Big Friendly Giant,
and taken away in the middle of the night.  The
BFG collects dreams and is responsible for
blowing them into peoples heads while they
sleep.  But there are other giants who snatch
children out of their beds and eat them.  Sophie
and the BFG devise a plan to bring this to the
attention of the Queen of England and enlist her
help in stopping the child-eating giants.
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James and the Giant Peach.

• When James accidentally drops some magic
  crystals by the old peach tree, strange things
  start to happen. The peach at the top of the tree
  begins to grow, and before long its as big as a
  house. Then James discovers a secret entranceway
  into the fruit, and when he crawls inside, he
  meets a bunch of oversized friends-Grasshopper,
  Centipede, Ladybug, and more. After years of
  feeling like an outsider in his aunts house,
  James has finally found a place where he belongs.
  With a snip of the stem, the peach starts rolling
  away, and the adventure begins!

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Matlida

• Matilda is the story of a precocious young girl
  who loves reading. Her teacher, Miss Honey, is
  the only adult who appreciates her strengths.
  Matildas parents tell her to watch more TV, and
  the school principle, Miss Trunchbull, is
  incredibly mean to all the students. Matildas
  life becomes interesting, however, when she
  realizes she has magic powers