Grasshopper and Sensei and PickyKidPix both discovered Roald Dahl in third grade. I think it was the first chapter book author they really fell in love with. Now that my youngest is in third grade, I hope that the magic of Roald Dahl happens again for him and his class.
In honor of Roald Dahl day today, I’m revisiting posts that I’ve done in previous years.
Roald Dahl Day and Our Favorite Roald Dahl Books
These were PickyKidPix’s favorite Roald Dahl books. If you asked her now, she would say that her favorite was:
George’s Marvelous Medicine
George’s Marvelous Medicine is also highly recommended by the kids in her class. She and I thought it was very, very funny too! Afterwards it inspired her to make a big messy mix up of potions and lotions. Fun stuff! It would make for a very fun children’s book club!
Top 10: Roald Dahl Books for Roald Dahl Day!
Hands down, the two favorite books from my kids’ two third grade classes are …
The BFG
If flatulence, royalty and a giant with disproportionately large ears are what you’re after in a story, this is the book for you. Throw in kidnapped orphan Sophie (snatched and taken to Giant Land) and a trumpet that blows dreams into sleeping children’s rooms, and the result is an extraordinary Dahl-esque/Dali-esque vision.
followed by …
Matilda
Matilda is a lovely girl. Her parents aren’t. Matilda loves books and reading. Her parents love conning people and watching telly. School, ruled by the evil Miss Trunchbull, whose speciality is swinging children by their hair and throwing them out of the window, isn’t much better. Then Matilda discovers that she has supernatural powers …
My personal favorite still remains Danny the Champion of the World.
This is one of our favorite Roald Dahl book’s: the art of poaching peasants from your arch enemy fat cat next door. And it’s all about father/son bonding. A perfect book for a dad to read to his kids!
Finally, an homage to Roald Dahl. I thought these books were similar to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Chapter Books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Candymakers by Wendy Mass
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Escape from Mr. Limoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein
What is your favorite Roald Dahl book? What about your child’s? Happy Roald Dahl Day!!
p.s. More Roald Dahl:
Top 10 Roald Dahl Books for Roald Dahl Day!
Happy Birthday Roald Dahl Sept 13
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My favorite is James and the Giant Peach. I must admit it did take me a while to get into reading his books.
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for sharing your favorite Roald Dahl book. I think also got into his books much later than third grade. They were a little scary for me!
It’s so hard to narrow down because I love Roald Dahl! I love Matilda, but also, his “Boy” biography and “Henry Sugar and Other Stories” are fantastic as well!
Hi Tales of a Bookworm,
I haven’t read either of your picks and I didn’t even know about Henry Sugar and Other Stories! Thanks so much for your wonderful recommendations. Back to the library with your list!!
I really like Witches and The BFG! 😀
Hi Erik,
PickyKidPix was a little scared when we tried to read Witches but I heard that was good. The Witches’ cauldron and the reference to them eating kids I think really freaked her out. I’m glad you liked The BFG too! It’s one of our favorites!
It’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for both of us, but I want to try Marvelous Medicine, it sounds interesting!
Hi Natalie,
It’s funny but my girls never did end up reading Dahl’s most popular books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I’m not sure. It could have been that they knew the story from the movies but that was one of my favorites as well. George’s Marvelous Medicine is a fun read. It’s a little like Alice in Wonderland with the concoctions doing different things to George.
How wonderful! I didn’t even know Roald Dahl Day existed! My favourite is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and my son’s is James and the Giant Peach. He’s reading Going Solo at the moment. I also love his short story collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
Hi Lizzy,
Dahl’s short stories are new to us so we will have to hunt them down. Thanks so much for your wonderful book recommendations. I think Roald Dahl Day is a much bigger deal in England but it was fun to discover. Also, because it happens so early in the school year, teachers are not ready to use it as a class celebration. I think would if his birthday was later in the school year! Oh well. Can’t change that!
I’ve never read Marvelous Medicine – will have to look for that one!
I didn’t know today was Roald Dahl day! I liked James and the Giant Peach the best, and was terrified of Witches. I really thought I would be turned into a rat lol.
Hi Nina,
We didn’t get too far with Witches either! My middle daughter, PickyKidPix, got too scared from the first few pages so we had to trade it for anther Dahl book. And then I was thinking that ALL the Dahl books have a scary element but I guess The Witches was the scariest for her. She didn’t mind any of the others!
I’m pretty sure I discovered Roald Dahl in the third grade as well! Growing up, my all-time faves were Matilda and James and the Giant Peach, but I love all of his books.
Hi Katie,
I feel like I discovered Roald Dahl later than 3rd grade … maybe 4th grade but I can’t really remember. It’s a revelation to me though how all the kids seem to take to Dalh in 3rd grade like some kind of rite of passage!! I love it! Love your picks too! James and the Giant Peach was one of my favorites as well but somehow I have never read Matilda. I need to read it!
Thanks for posting about Roald Dahl Day! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Danny, Champion of the World, and The Giraffe, the Pelly, and Me are favorites around my house. I stopped by from the Kid Lit Blog Hop.
Hi Patty,
Thanks so much for visiting! I’m glad that you like Roald Dahl too including Danny, Champion of the World. Sometimes I feel like I am the only one who read that one and loved it!
That is quite a list of Dahls books. I had no idea there were that many. Thanks for posting this. It gives me a lot to look forward to. Thanks for hooking this up with the kid lit blog hop. I am a (late, very late) hostess now doing her rounds. I enjoyed your exuberant post.
Thanks so much Sue and for taking the time to stop by and leave a comment! We are big fans of Roald Dahl so my kids and I were delighted to learn, just a few years ago, that he has his own day though it’s mostly celebrated in England.
Not sure if I should admit my lack of knowledge, but thanks for introducing me to Ronald Dahl. Haha! I’m pinning this post to our blog hop board so I and anybody else who doesn’t know him can check him out.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Awesome that you stopped by and linked up this post to our Monday Blog Hop. I do hope you come back week after week. I learn so much from you and appreciate your incredible wealth of knowledge.
Thanks so much Lisa!
Glad that you liked Roald Dahl and always happy to match up one of our favorite authors to readers! I hope you have time to read one of his books. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is his most famous since it’s been made into several movies. James and the Giant Peach is always popular though a tad scarier than the Charlie books. (There are 2 of those). Happy Roald Dahl Day and Happy Reading His Books! I think you will like them.
I haven’t read as much Roald Dahl as I think I should have done but one of my favourite stories would also be Matilda.
Hopping by from the kid lit blog hop 🙂
Hi Catherine,
I need to read more Roald Dahl too. I’ve never read Matilda!
big BIG BIG fans of Roald Dahl here 🙂 We celebrated by reading his quirky tale of “The Enormous Crocodile” and tried to “sound” out some of the funny words that he makes up! thanks for sharing on Kid Lit Blog Hop Mia! And oh! I meant to say this to you earlier, Congrats on getting to be on the Cybils panel!
-Reshama @StackingBooks.com
Thanks so much Reshama! We haven’t read The Enormous Crocodile but I will track it down and add it to my crocodile book list I am working on. (I’m not sure why I am making a crocodile book list for kids, but there you go. It seems to be forming itself!).
I tried reading Matilda more than once but my kids were not old enough I think. Maybe I should give it another shot maybe with BFG.
Hi Ann,
I do think timing is everything! Middle of third grade seemed to be the Roald Dahl sweet spot for my two older kids. I’d try BFG first as well (but then I’ve never read Matilda).
Thank you for sharing!! My oldest is a Roald Dahl fan 🙂 we’ve read a few of his books together.Thanks for linking up to the Mommy Monday Blog Hop!
xo
Thank you so much for coming by Mrs. AOK!! What Roald Dahl book is your oldest’s favorite?
I can’t wait to build up my little one’s library until we have ALL the Roald Dahl books. We had many of them in our house, but I’m pretty sure they’ve all migrated to my mom’s classroom. Thanks for linking in!
Hi Jaymie,
That would be a great collection! I thought we had all of Roald Dahl’s books but we’re still missing a few. I have a third grader so I hope he reads them too.
My daughter (a third grader) loves Roald Dahl. Her dream is to see Matilda on Broadway. She has not yet read Danny the Champion of the World though, so I will have to pick that one up. Thanks! Stopping by from Kid Lit Blog Hop.
Thanks so much for hosting the Kid Lit Blog Hop Elizabeth! It would be so fun to see Matilda on Broadway. I hope your daughter gets to see that one day!!
My son really liked The Enormous Crocodile. He liked how the animals joined together to protect the children from the tricky crocodile. It was one of the books that we inspired a story themed lunch on Roald Dahl Day.
Hi Keitha,
I haven’t read The Enormous Crocodile but now I really, really want to. It sounds wonderful! Thanks so much for your comment. How wonderful to celebrate Roald Dahl Day with a story themed lunch!! What did you eat for that? I love that idea!
Pragmatic Mom,
I make story themed lunches for my son almost every school day. I am unable to leave a link in your comment section to The Enormous Crocodile lunch but you can see it if you google: Keithas Chaos Enormous Crocodile. That will take you to the Roald Dahl hop I participated in. The crocodile was made out of spinach tortilla and there was a cheese sun where the crocodile sizzled into sausage.
Hi Keitha,
I love your story themed lunches that you make for your son! How wonderful!!
Here’s the link for The Enormous Crocodile Link for my readers: http://keithaschaos.blogspot.com/2013/09/roald-dahl-day-blog-hop.html
Sorry that you couldn’t put it in. CommentLuv doesn’t let anyone add links to commments to keep the spammers at bay.
I LOVED your Roald Dahl lunch! Thank you so much for sharing it!!!
We have been reading books by Roald Dahl this week to celebrate. We started with THE MAGIC FINGER and THE TWITS. Tonight we will start another…yet to be decided. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROALD DAHL!
Hi Eric,
We love Roald Dahl too! I just read The Twits with my son (which I had not read before). I’m so glad my youngest now in 4th grade is FINALLY getting into Dahl. I’m hoping I can finish off the Dahl books I didn’t read with his sisters with him. It’s a small stack too! I still need to read The Magic Finger too!