Book Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Book: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket book #1) by Roald Dahl with illustrations by Quentin Blake

Edition: Paperback

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a delightful and whimsical story. However it didn't start out that way. The story opens by introducing Charlie Bucket, his parents and both sets of grandparents who are living in extreme poverty. They live in a small rundown house at the edge of town and there was only one bedroom and bed and the elderly grandparents shared that. While Charlie and his parents slept on a mattress on the floor. Although, they barely had enough money for food and other necessities they made sure to do something special for Charlie's birthday by giving him a chocolate bar. It wasn't much but it meant the world to Charlie.

Charlie loves to listen to his Grandpa Joe tell stories about Mr. Willy Wonka and his factory especially since the factory was closed to the public. As a way to counteract against spies who had been stealing his secrets, Mr. Wonka had fired all the employees and closed the factory. But the strange thing is his factory continued to produce candy leaving the townspeople to wonder who was working there.

A big surprise soon awaited the world when Mr. Wonka announced a special contest for five kids to tour his factory and to receive a lifetime supply of candy. To win they would have to find one of the five golden tickets which were hidden in random candy bars. 

Charlie and his family didn't think he had a chance of wining since they could only afford to buy one chocolate bar a year as a birthday gift. It wasn't long before winners were being announced: Augustus Gloop, a greedy boy with a huge appetite; Veruca Salt, a spoiled girl who get everything she wants; Violet Beauregarde, a rude girl who only cares about chewing gum and Mike Teavee, a boy who is obsessed with watching TV and playing with toy guns.

Thanks to some unexpected good luck, Charlie was able to find the last golden ticket. Accompanying the other children on the tour were their parents while Grandpa Joe went with Charlie. The inside of the factory held so many surprising and fantastic things including the mysterious people who work for Mr. Wonka, the Oompa-Loompas.

The tour was an unbelievable experience with them seeing unimaginable things along the way but one by one Augustus, Violet, Veruca and Mike seemed to be enticed by something that brought out their greed, rudeness and selfishness which sidelined them from completing the tour. After each incident the Oompa-Loompas would sing a song that I found included a very relevant moral.

I can see why this is a beloved children's story, not only is it a unique and well-written story but it's fun and wacky but surprisingly has a little bit of darkness to it. Although I found Mr. Wonka to be a total genius he was also very eccentric and so were the Oompa-Loompas. I thought Charlie was a wonderful character, he was very kind, caring and grateful. The experience of taking the tour was more than enough for him which is why he was so surprised when he received an unbelievable gift from Mr. Wonka. However, the other kids who were absolutely horrible were always looking for more. Those other kids were not the only ones who were horrible, so were their parents who enabled them by fulfilling their every whim and desire.

After reading this, I would like to read the sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. I want to see how Charlie is dealing with his new life.