Roald Dahl Book List
Interest Level: grades 6-8
Interest Level: grades 4-6
Interest Level: grades 3-5
Interest Level: grades 3-5
Interest Level: grades 3-5
Interest Level: grades 4-6
Interest Level: grades 6-8
Interest Level: grades 3-5
Interest Level: grades 3-5
Interest Level: grades 3-5
Interest Level: grades 4-9
Interest Level: grades 9-12
Interest Level: grades 4-6
Interest Level: grades 3-5
Interest Level: grades 2-5
Interest Level: grades K-2
Interest Level: grades 3-5
Interest Level: grades 6-8
Interest Level: grades 3-5
Interest Level: grades 6-8 |
Roald Dahl Awards and Achievements
list retrieved from http://www.roalddahlfans.com/awards.php |
Roald Dahl Biography Information
Roald Dahl was born September 3, 1916 in Llandaff, Wales. His father valued education and wanted his children to attend prestigious schools in England. After his death his wife made sure Roald Dahl attended these such schools. Roald Dahl attended Llandaff Cathedral School, St. Peter's Preparatory School, and Repton Public School. It was not a pleasant time for Dahl and had many horrible experiences and one time faked appendicitis because he was homesick. He knew the symptoms because his older sister died from appendicitis. Roald Dahl talks about his experiences at these schools in his book Boy: Tales of Childhood. Although he went to prestigious schools he was not good academically but good at sports including cricket and swimming. His main hobby was reading and he loved Rudyard Kipling, Captain Marryat, H. Rider Haggarrd, and G.A. Henty. After he finished school he went to work for the Shell Company, which allowed him to travel. At the beginning of World War II he left his job to join the Royal Air Force (RAF) to fly warplanes. Unfortunately, after his training his first flight ended in his famous 1940 crash in the Libyan desert. The crash fractured his skull and blinded him for days. He went back after spending months in the hospital but eventually had blinding headaches from the accident ending his career. Once his career ended he was asked to tell his story to a famous author, C.S Forester but instead he wrote it down. It was published without any changes because Forester thought it was so good. This started his career of writing stories about his RAF adventures. One was called The Gremlins, which Disney wanted to turn into a movie. When the idea failed they turned it into a picture book in 1943. This catapulted Dahl's name as a writer. He got an agent in 1944 and started publishing stories in American Magazines. After marrying his wife Patricia Neal they had 5 children. Roald believes if he didn't have children he wouldn't have become a children's book author. He got divorced and remarried to his previous love and was extremely happy and wrote some of his best books. Roald Dahl died on November 23, 1990 in Oxford, England.
Roald Dahl's Writing Style
Roald Dahl has a unique style of writing compared to other children's authors. Below is a list of what you can find when reading his books, relating to his style.
Roald Dahl has a unique style of writing compared to other children's authors. Below is a list of what you can find when reading his books, relating to his style.
- Uses interesting vocabulary, made up words
- Uses personality and traits of the characters to name them
- Uses personification and alliterations
- Stands out from other authors by using dark humor, adult villains, the viewpoint is from a child, and the outside of a character reflects the inside (making it more relatable)
- Plays around with sentence structure
- Uses poems within the stories
- Silly, creative, humorous style