4 stars
This is kind of a tricky one for me to rate. I specifically remember ordering this book as a young child and being so excited to have all of Dahl’s stories in one book. It seemed like a great deal to me. Then the book came and I was very confused with the setup. I clearly did not understand what an extract was and didn’t realize the book only contained samples of the longer stories. I read a smattering of tales, but was mostly confused by the extracts.
Finally, as an adult, I read through the entire book. By this time, I have read most of the novels/novellas featured in this book so I had a better handle on the extracts provided.
Overall, this is a good collection of stories and poems with a mix of fiction and non-fiction. It contains the full stories of “The Enormous Crocodile” and “The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me” along with various poems such as “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. There are also many extracts from longer stories and novels such as The Twits, The BFG, and Matilda. Some of these samples are entertaining on their own but I do feel it helps to have an idea of the whole story when reading them.
As with any Dahl creation, there are many dark and twisted happenings in this collection with many characters meeting rather unfortunate ends. I remember being horrified by Dahl’s version of “The Three Little Pigs”. Because of this, I would not recommend this for sensitive readers. Best fit for those who already enjoy Dahl’s humor and story-telling style.
There are a few words some might find objectionable such as @ss (as in “Don’t be an @ss”). The poem, “Cinderella”, also does include the infamous “$lut” line. This isn’t to say the collection is bad, but perhaps skip over this if it’s not to your taste. There are also many not nice words used such as calling people stupid, etc. But again, that’s pretty characteristic of Dahl (you know, the man who wrote a book called The Twits).
Entertaining, humorous, dark, and at times rather insightful. Overall, I enjoyed the collection. Nice mix of original Quentin Blake artwork along with newer artwork of varying styles. This is an interesting look at the life of Dahl and his various creations from talking foxes outsmarting humans to witches set on turning all children into mice. Dahl’s works are sure to continue to inspire for generations to come.