‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ by Roald Dahl
Reviewed by Kilmihil Children’s Book Club

Charlie Bucket lives with his family, Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine, Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina and his mother and father. They live in a little house and are very poor. His grandparents are elderly and stay in bed all day long. Charlie’s father works hard in a toothpaste factory but no matter how hard he works he never makes enough money to feed his family. They live on cabbage and cabbage soup, and Charlie is always hungry.

Charlie loves chocolate and gets one chocolate bar for his birthday every year. The great Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory is close to where Charlie lives. Mr. Wonka shut himself off from the public years before because his workers were selling his new ideas to rival companies. He makes an announcement that he is opening his factory to the five lucky people who find a golden ticket in his chocolate bars.

The lucky winners are Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Mike Teavee , Violet Beauregarde and Charlie Bucket.
Mr Wonka’s Factory is full of exciting surprises. Charlie and the children see the Oompa Loompas and all the amazing things in the factory.

The greedy Augustus falls into a pool of chocolate and has to be extracted from the pool filter. Violet, is addicted to chewing gum and turns blue with Wonka's new chewing gum. Mike Teavee, a very rude TV addict, is shrunk to TV size, and the nasty and very demanding, Veruca Salt is thrown into the garbage chute to be incinerated.

Charlie, our hero, is the last remaining child and wins the prize. Mr Wonka wants him and his family to live with him in the factory and to take over the factory when he gets old.

This book was enjoyed by the members of the Kilmihil book club. They liked the humour and thought the story had a good ending. The hero Charlie was rewarded and the nasty spoiled children all got what they deserved.

Rating: 8 out of 10.