Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Robin Hood didn't turn out so well.

Too many thees and thous. It was all, "Robin thou doest" this, and "thou hast not" that. Too much for a seven-year-old, no matter how many bloodthirsty deeds there are. We got two chapters in and had to stop.

In desperation, I went searching on my son's bookshelf and there I found our new read-aloud book: Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

We're only on the third chapter, and already my son is all, "Don't stop, mom, don't stop!" even though he's so tired he can barely keep his eyes open.

Here's why it's so good

It's a fast read, Dahl paints pictures that are easy and fun to visualize, and as you read, there's something pretty exciting around every corner.

Although Charlie is so poor all four of his grandparents have to share the same bed, and they eat cabbage soup every night, and Charlie gets only one chocolate bar a year which he nibbles so slowly it lasts a month -- it's not a scary, dark kind of read. It comes off more as silly and whimsical.

This is the perfect kind of book to read aloud. Thank you, Roald Dahl, you brilliant writer, you.

Say, did you read the last post? If not, you may want to check it out - this one'll make a heck of a lot more sense. Oh, and I've got a pretty fun post I'm preparing for next week. Stay tuned!

And speaking of past posts, remember how Kanye West hates books? Well, it turns out that Michael Jackson looooved them. He had a huge library, and was quite the bookworm. You can tell your kid that, but I'm not sure if it would work for, or against, books. Probably for. Yeah, probably for.