Thursday, September 08, 2005

"The Wish" by Roald Dahl

"Step on a crack... " When you were a child, perhaps you played games similar to the ones the boy in this story plays. Let us hope your fate was nowhere as dire as his! Read by Scoot.

We dare not speak the name of the famous book and movie which most people--or at least children--know originates with this Welsh author. Well, maybe we can say James and the Giant Peach. But, like Shel Silverstein or even C. S. Lewis, Mr. Dahl was not your typical children's author, but wrote a great deal for adults as well--and his vision was, in general, every bit as misanthropic and eccentric as that character Johnny Depp most recently played. "Nasty" in its most delightfully British connotation might be apt, as well. Whether much of it is "great" literature (whatever that is) or not, his work is enjoyable, and enjoyably packaged in several short story collections. Now, we're sure the interweb is filled with intimate details of Mr. Dahl's life, but here we refrain. We will tell you that both his daughter Tess and granddaughter Sophie are children's book writers. Research him as you will...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

great story

Anonymous said...

I read this when I was in school. I thought it was a very interesting, entertaining, and memorable piece of literature. I may have forgotten most of what I learned in High School English class but not this story. I highly recommend reading it.

Anonymous said...

this captivating story is about a boy and where his imagination takes him. I would recommend for people to read. The situation the boy had created for himself through his imagination was the same situation for me when i was little. I used to play games like that all the time.

Anonymous said...

the wish has a significant impact on people that need help letting loose or pushing out of limits and "reach for the sky." I think in my opinion, that this is story with great detail in such short pages.
A MUST READ!
small boy...imagination...curiosty

Anonymous said...

this book is really good

Anonymous said...

the bookl was really really really
goody

roaldfan said...

i wish everyone could have studied this text in as great detail as i did. This story has so much depth, reading this story only once is definitly not enough to completely understand it