Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl with Dane last night. It's been so fun reading chapter books with him. Since we began Charlotte's Web sometime last year, he's been hooked.

Charlie is such a charming, sad little character and the only one that the eccentric Mr. Wonka treats with true kindness.

Near the end of the book, when the other four children have gone and Mr. Wonka tells Charlie that he's won, I took a second to ask Dane what he thought Charlie had won. Instead, he told me why he won. "Charlie wasn't foolish or greedy like the other children" he spoke, sagely. Dane seems to automatically look for the lesson in the books we read.

I got downright weepy at the end of the book. The great glass elevator crashes through the Buckets' home and everyone is told they are coming to live at the factory. The three still-bedridden grandparents do not want to go, but their bed is wheeled onto the elevator anyway. Grandma Josephine says: "Will there be anything to eat when we get there? I'm starving! The whole family is starving!" (as indeed, they are) And then sweet, sad, little Charlie says, laughing: "Anything to eat? Oh, you just wait and see!" It made me cry.

I recommend this book whether you have anyone to read it to or not!