By Sibeal Pounder
based on the screenplay by Simon Farnaby and Paul King, story by Paul King
4RBooks: 5/6, grades 3-7
Amazon rating: 4.6/5, grade level 3-7
Good Reads: 4.16/5
Common Sense Media: Not yet reviewed
293 pages
Synopsis:
Willy Wonka grew up looking forward to his birthday bar of chocolate every year. His mother would save up cocoa beans all year to make this special present. The two of them dreamed of making chocolate that the whole world would enjoy.
After seven years of traveling the world, Willy finds his way to the Galleries Gourmet where the three most famous chocolatiers have their shops. He is hoping to open his own shop but instead finds himself trapped in a laundry house and working as a slave. With the help of new friends, fellow prisoners in the laundry, and his own creativity and ingenuity, Willy works to escape and build his future Chocolate empire.
The three chocolate moguls and the people they have paid to help them (the local police chief, the owners of the laundry house, and the priest) conspire to keep Willy from achieving his dream. This leads to one crazy night pitting Willy and his crew versus the evils powers to determine who is going to control the chocolate making in the land.
Parental Guidance: low
Crazy characters with many moral flaws.
Roald Dahl like, cartoonish moments of danger and peril.
The priest and monks help the famous chocolatiers maintain their secrets and power.
Recommendation:
This is the story companion to the new movie, which I have not seen. It is not the line-by-line screenplay. The book was a good attempt at a Roald Dahl type story. It is a prequel to the Charlie and Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator stories. It attempts to detail Charlie’s early history, but it is not a childhood biography. It sets the stage for the defining moment in Charlie’s career that set him up for future success.
If you are fan of Roald Dahl type stories, this should be a pleasant read. It was fun and silly and reminded you of his classics. It is an easy read and requires little knowledge of the original story. Those who have read the originals will appreciate some of the hints and clues toward the coming events. Children in 3rd grade and up should be able to read this alone. I picked this book up in my local Costco.
Special note for teachers, one fun aspect to the book is the regular use of bigger and different font for words on almost every page. Makes it easy to pick and choose vocabulary words to work on while reading. Very similar to the Geronimo Stilton books.
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