This book involves the ultimate contest. I am not going to tell you the title. I’m going to give you clues. [Ask them not to shout out the answer.] Clue #1: it’s been made into a movie several times, and most of you have probably seen it. Clue #2: the contest requires that you find a ticket, and then you’ll be allowed into a place which no humans are seen going or coming from. Clue #3: most of the children who find the tickets are weird, annoying, or selfish, but not all of them. Clue #4: A boy who comes from an extremely poor family wins the contest. [Let them reveal the answer, if they haven’t already done so.] Raise your hand if you’ve seen the movie. Okay, raise your hand if you have read the book. If you haven’t read the book, do so. In many ways, it is so much weirder and funnier than the movie. The book has so many strange and quirky little details which the movie just didn’t have time for. My favorite ones were about Charlie’s grandparents and his home life. Remember, they were so poor that they had to fit all four grandparents into one bed [the rest of the family has to sleep on the cold floor], and the conversations involving those poor grandparents are hilarious. No one does sad, strange, and funny better than Roald Dahl.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Puffin, 2007 [copyright dates vary]. 176 p. Booktalk to intermediate grades, middle school.
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