Boy: Tales of Childhood (Hardback) Award-winning team by Roald Dahl (author) and Quentin Blake (illustrator)

Author/Illustrator

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, South Wales on September 13th 1916. His parents were Norwegian, and were called Harald and Sofie. He went to Repton school, in Derbyshire, and left school in 1933.

His first job was in Africa, with the Shell Oil Company. In the second world war he fought as a fighter pilot, and was badly injured when his plane crashed. After the war he worked in America, and soon started writing stories.

His very first children’s book, written in 1943 was called The Gremlins. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the President of the USA liked it so much he was invited to the White House and became friends with the President, Franklin D Roosevelt.

He wrote a number of books and short stories for adults, many of which were televised as the hugely popular Tales of the Unexpected.

But it was as a children’s author that he found greatest fame and satisfaction, saying “I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers…Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful.” Millions of fans around the world agreed and have chuckled and gasped at his amazing stories. His mesmerising stories, written in sizzling, sparkly language, will lead you into adventures you’ll never ever forget!

From 1945 until his death, he lived at Gipsy House, in Buckinghamshire, where he wrote his famous children’s books. He died in hospital in Oxford, on November 23rd, 1990. His books have continued to be read and loved, and have been made into a number of hit films, including Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You can even visit the Roald Dahl Museum in the village where Dahl lived for most of his life.

In 2009 the Roald Dahl Funny Prize was established in his memory.

Reviews

1. Quibi
   on 30 September 2013

   Dear Mr. Avery's Cla

   Dear Mr. Avery's Class,Wow! What a fantastic job you all did on the movie trielar. It looked like the real thing! We read The BFG as a read-aloud this year and we all loved it. Roald Dahl is my favorite author of children's books. When I was young he hadn't written The BFG yet, so James and The Giant Peach was my favorite book. Now, I think it's a tie between those two books, but all of his books are fantastic.The thing I like about Roald Dahl is that he combines incredible descriptions and details with lots of humor, but his books also have a message. What do you think some of the messages are in The BFG?I'm sure when we get back from vacation the students will be leaving you some comments about this amazing post. They might even share their favorite part (which is probably about glorious, glumptious frobscottle. )From,Mr. Salsich

   3out of 5

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What kids think

1. dragons9
   on 19 July 2014

   awesome book.

2. mintymoo368
   on 4 July 2014

   Boy is the tale of Roald Dahl (arguably one of the best authors ever) and his life as a school boy. Unlike most autobiographies it only contains exciting, funny stories about when he was a child and it has no boring details about his adult life. I loved it!

   5out of 5

3. Bubblegum1234
   on 8 March 2014

   interesting!

4. Book-Lover1234
   on 7 March 2014

   This book was ok. You could see where Roald Dahl gets some of his inspirations and ideas from as well as getting to know him a bit better. It wasn’t really the right sort of book for me but it was still very interesting!

   3out of 5

5. Cal123
   on 6 March 2014

   This is one of Roald Dahl’s best books. It is hard to believe that all these things actually happened but I know that they did.

   5out of 5

6. Spidergirl
   on 6 March 2014

   Just like his story’s I loved reading about his life

   5out of 5

7. fantasticmissfox
   on 5 March 2014

   I loved this book. Roald Dahl was very naughty sometimes! He became a brilliant author though. Hmmm…

8. EllaBellaSwella
   on 4 March 2014

   Amazing is all I can say about this book. It is BEYOND amazing, in fact!

   5out of 5

9. Prisoner01
   on 4 March 2014

   This book is really good if you are a Roald Dahl fan because you can find out more about him and what he was like when he was a kid!

   4out of 5

10. justbecauseimnerdy
    on 4 March 2014

    Boy is an excellent book and a somewhat nostalgic look back on Dahl’s own childhood. Funny in some parts, tragic in others, it’s very interesting and also appropriate for most ages. My only qualm with the book is the graphic description of corporal punishment, which might upset younger children.

11. Smitten
    on 3 March 2014

    It was brilliant Learning about Roald Dahls Childhood and what he did.

    5out of 5

12. CookieM
    on 9 March 2013

    I love Roald Dahl’s books and this was a good way to find out about the author and when he was younger. I love the simple but effective cover :)

    5out of 5