Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the books)

One of the most cherished children’s books of the last century, Charlie and the Chocolate factory is fun, creative, and full of imagination. Much-loved children’s author Roald Dahl in 1964 authored this book. The book went on to gain great success and is still popular today. Charlie is a young boy living with his parents and two sets of grandparents in a small house in poverty. This book details his adventures and how his life is turned around when he wins a golden ticket to take a tour through Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory with several other ticket-winning children.

Charlie’s grandfather, Grandfather Joe is a big part of this story, being Charlie’s chaperone and having once worked at the factory himself. Grandfather Joe tells of how the factory was once filled with workers and busy, but one day suddenly sent all its workers away and mysteriously shut down, forever. However, the factory strangely opened up again later, and none are sure exactly who is making the candy now. The book takes its reader on a magical journey through an imaginative mesh of factory rooms, including the Chocolate Room, The Nut Sorting Room, The Inventing Room, and The Television Room. Each of these rooms brings a special challenge to one of the children chosen for the tour, and lessons are learned, most of the time the hard way. Each of the children is taught in funny and ingenious ways the error of their behaviors.

This book has won several different awards, including the New England Round Table of Children’s Librarians Award, the Surrey School Award, the Millennium Children’s Book Award, and the Blue Peter Book Award. In addition to this, two movies were made from the book. The first movie was released on June 20th of 1971 and produced by Paramount Pictures. The other was released on July 15th, 2005 and was produced and directed by the well known Tim Burton. In closing, this is surely one of the greatest children’s novels of all time, and is sure to get children interested and engaged in reading.