The book I am reviewing is ‘Boy’ by Roald Dahl. This fantastic novel was written in 1984 and was first published that year as well. The genre of this book is a tricky question as it is supposed to be an autobiography about the famous author Dahl himself but he states in the book that his piece of work infact is not an autobiography but a string of tales from his childhood which he simply wrote because he wants to entertain the reader. Dahl writes this story from when he was seven up to when he was twenty and he gives some very gripping and entertaining stories from that age. Some of these stories are very hilarious like when he dropped a rat into the candy shop owners jars while some are serious like when his family went for a drive and Dahl’s nose almost got cut off when they crashed. But one thing is for sure, they are all entertaining.
The main topics in the book are the stories which are practically all about his school life and the lessons he learns there. But Dahl also does something else to make us read and to make us really understand what is going on. He embellishes all of his stories to make them more interesting and to captivate the reader in this book to really get the message out. If you don’t know what embellishing means it is basically exaggerating to make something seem more evil or good or whatever you want the reader to fell it should be like. But Dahl uses other techniques and ideas such as descriptive language which lets us get taken into a show more world which is so clear but is shown to us by mere words. He also uses descriptive language to show a setting to make us feel like we are in the book. One very useful technique is characterization which lets us predict what a characters personality is like just by reading what they say, this technique is also useful since you know what character is speaking. But most of all he uses suspense which drags us into the stories of the book and makes us think of multiple possibilities of what’s going to happen next and this makes us read more and want to know much more than what’s just written. These are all of the techniques and ideas used to complete a master novel by a great story teller.
Now off the facts and onto my opinion, this book is great and there are many wonderful and magical scenes but my favourite is when he dropped a rat into Mrs Prachett’s candy jar in her candy shop. This is my favourite because it is hilarious and contains many details which let me feel like Dahl in that scene. If you just look at this scene it will tell you that the book will be quite entertaining and that it is very detailed and precisely written. The strengths of the book is that it will grip the reader and make them want more and it is a book that you wont regret buying even though it is pretty skinny I always say it is the quality you should look for and not the quantity. But there are some weaknesses as Dahl was around seventy to eighty years old when he wrote this and he just skimmed the stories off the top of his head so they may not be that realistic but nonetheless they are well written. I recommend this book to anyone of any age, shape or size as long as they like a good portion of entertainment, laughter and if they love Roald Dahl (who doesn’t). show less
The main topics in the book are the stories which are practically all about his school life and the lessons he learns there. But Dahl also does something else to make us read and to make us really understand what is going on. He embellishes all of his stories to make them more interesting and to captivate the reader in this book to really get the message out. If you don’t know what embellishing means it is basically exaggerating to make something seem more evil or good or whatever you want the reader to fell it should be like. But Dahl uses other techniques and ideas such as descriptive language which lets us get taken into a show more world which is so clear but is shown to us by mere words. He also uses descriptive language to show a setting to make us feel like we are in the book. One very useful technique is characterization which lets us predict what a characters personality is like just by reading what they say, this technique is also useful since you know what character is speaking. But most of all he uses suspense which drags us into the stories of the book and makes us think of multiple possibilities of what’s going to happen next and this makes us read more and want to know much more than what’s just written. These are all of the techniques and ideas used to complete a master novel by a great story teller.
Now off the facts and onto my opinion, this book is great and there are many wonderful and magical scenes but my favourite is when he dropped a rat into Mrs Prachett’s candy jar in her candy shop. This is my favourite because it is hilarious and contains many details which let me feel like Dahl in that scene. If you just look at this scene it will tell you that the book will be quite entertaining and that it is very detailed and precisely written. The strengths of the book is that it will grip the reader and make them want more and it is a book that you wont regret buying even though it is pretty skinny I always say it is the quality you should look for and not the quantity. But there are some weaknesses as Dahl was around seventy to eighty years old when he wrote this and he just skimmed the stories off the top of his head so they may not be that realistic but nonetheless they are well written. I recommend this book to anyone of any age, shape or size as long as they like a good portion of entertainment, laughter and if they love Roald Dahl (who doesn’t). show less