Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Ronald Dahl, Puffin Books, £4.49
What is the book about?
Charlie Bucket is a caring young man who lives in a small home with all his grandparents and his parents who struggle to provide for him. Though he never wants or asks for much, he is beyond excited upon finding one of the famous golden tickets for an exclusive tour of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory along with a group of other children from all walks of life. Along the way the book stresses the importance of good character and avoiding selfishness and greed in a way that's easy to understand for children.
Who is it aimed at?
This classic children’s novel is one I would hope all would read at one point or another but I would mainly recommend from 7-10.
What was your favourite part?
This tale has been told time and time again with movies and stage productions, but there’s always a sense of nostalgia with Roald Dahl’s writing that makes the book perfect to pass on through generations.
What was your least favourite part?
This might be a little harder to read as it may seem dated, with the original publication being in 1964. However stick with it and the timelessly relatable characters and themes prevail.
Which character would you most like to meet?
My favourite character was always Charlie, for his flaws and strengths as a young person.
Why should someone buy this book?
For the warmth of the messages of family, resilience and hope. The perfect children’s book for winter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here