Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald DahlMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Everyone has seen either the 1971 version of "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" or the 2005 Depp version of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". I wanted to read the book to compare it to the movies, so I did.
The reading level of this book is easy and definitely intended towards children. There are sketches in the book to show what Dahl was trying to illustrate with words, which helps slightly as they are rough sketches.
To compare to the movies, the 1971 version was closer to true about Mr. Wonka's strangeness but the 2005 was closer to the book in general. The songs in 2005's movie was spot on with most of the songs in the book, whereas the 1971 version had nothing similar. Both movies had parts that the book didn't have at all (like the 1971's scene of the fizzy lifting drinks, which they only talked about, or the 2005 scenes about Wonka's family life, which was not mentioned at all).
This is a good book to read and it is a quick read. The chapters are short and the words are not challenging. If you want to sit down and read it with your children, go for it. They'll understand [except maybe one of the songs about the gum chewer, not Violet but another person; that song was a bit traumatizing, actually].
Between the 1971 movie and the 2005 movie, they have the book completely covered and then some. Grandpa Joe never worked in the factory, sorry 2005 movie, but he did know about the place. They did talk about the other candy companies trying to steal the recipes and whatnot, but they didn't use a spy [like the 1971 movie] to get the children to act bad. The children were already naturally rotten, aside Charlie. {The Oompa Loompas are NOT orange midgets; they are small "nearly to the knee" beings, but not necessarily all the same appearance, which I disliked in the 2005 movie.}
4/5 - Recommended! Borrow from the library and read with your children, if you have any. If you don't have any children, read it for yourself just to say you did. Share with others!
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{As posted on GoodReads.com}
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