Some Quotes by Roald Dahl

I found the following quotes by Roald Dahl at the following webstie:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/roald_dahl.html

A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom.

A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.

All Norwegian children learn to swim when they are very young because if you can't swim it is difficult to find a place to bathe.

All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed quite literally to wound other boys, and sometimes very severely.

An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details.

Did they preach one thing and practice another, these men of God?

Everyone has some sort of a boat in Norway. NObody sits around in front of the hotel. Nor does anyone sit on the beach.

Game-playing at school is always fun if you happen to be good at it, and it is hell if you are not. I was one of the lucky ones.

Homesickness is a bit like seasickness. You don't know how awful it is unti you get it, and when you do, it hits you right in the top of the stomach and you want to die.

Study Guide for Christina G, Rossetti

• published Sing-Song 10 years before Stevenson published A Child's Garden of Verses
• came from a famous family of writers and artist
• never married and never had children
• her two brothers tried to control her life
• Sing-Song
• only collection of verses
• from an adult point of view
• speaker mainly adult
• many included didactics
  
• love between a mother and child
• death
• nature, but not a child playing in nature
• fewer than 1/3 from child's point of view
• major themes
• love
• death
• parting
• realities of life
• 10 on death
• 4 on play
• Gender Issues
• stereotypical image of a boy being mischievous
  
• Arthur Hughes
• foremost children's illustrator
• worked together with verses and illustrations
• inherent part of verses' meaning
  

Lesson Plan for The BFG

I found this lesson plan at the following web site:
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/novel13.html

I thought this was a very creative way to get a class involved in the novel that they are reading

The BFG

by Roald Dahl

Read this book aloud to your class.

1. Read one chapter at a time twice a day. Each chapter is very short and ends on a suspenseful note. Every day, before the first reading of the day, summarize what happened in the two chapters previously by asking the class. Record the major events by drawing a picture time line on chart paper.
2. The chapter titled "Dreams" is quite a long one, so before beginning to read, prepare the kids by telling them that the chapter is about the good dreams and nightmares that the BFG collected, and after reading the chapter we will do an activity about our own dreams. "So, while we are reading this chapter, think about the dreams that you have had."

3. After reading the reading this chapter ask your students to:
   • Draw a nightmare that they have had.
   • Draw a good dream that they have had.
   • Write down as many words as they can to describe these dreams, don't worry about the spellings.
   • Share the dreams with the class.
4. When the book is finished, split your class into groups of three or four and get each of the groups to decide which one bad giant they would like to draw (Fleshlumpeater, Bonecruncher, Manhugger, Childchewer, Meatdripper, Maidmasher, Bloodbottler, or Butcher Boy) , majority decides. Draw an outline about 10 ft. tall, and each group can work together to paint it in. Also draw a BFG outline that the whole class can fill in as they have spare time.
5. Display the giants.

study guide for lyrics

• Cecil Francis Alexander Irish woman who wrote hymns in the for of children's poetry
• William Blake-innocence in experience changed children's poetry
• illuminated works- process by which Blake could etch his poems and pictures into copper
• turned children's poetry into a complex work of art
• possible to read Blake's poetry as they appear on the page
• all but The Tyger are from the innocent side
• address many challenging social issues
• illustrations are an inherent part of the text; this lead to the beginning of picture books for children
• many have religious content
• most have a simple vocabulary, short phrases with simple syntax, use familiar imagery, and use repetition and refraim
• draws from the oral tradition; not all things in works are considered for children
• verbal ambiguity, covert satire, and sexual imagery are included in these
• African American poets
• more current authors
• Maya Angelu
• Gwendolyn Brooks
• Harlem Renaissance poets- time of flowering of "Negro Arts"
• Countee Cullen
• Langston Hughes
• Hughes-thought a black artist needed to represent or give a voice to the African American experience
• Cullen-thought a black artist needed to write about more universal ideas and experiences along with the African American experience
• didn't want to be called a "Negro poet"
• Incident-an expression of African American experience of an eight-year-old boy
• Mother to Son-a mother telling her boy about her experience being an African American
• life was hard in the slums
• crystal stair would be the white woman's' experience compared to the one of an African American
• Life Doesn't Frighten Me-universal expression of an urban area
• Hunchback Girl: She Thinks of Heaven-universal experience, tells about a girl who is handicapped; doesn't have to represent a girl or a handicapped person
• prayer
  

April 6, 1994

The following is a story I wrote when I was five:

Once upon a time, there was three little puppy dogs. They climbed some trees then they were looking for some squirrels for breakfast and worms. Then they saw a lizard snake and they saved it for supper. They ate it and they boiled it. Then they saved some for breakfast too, in the morning. Then they went to sleep.

The End

When I was younger, I would pretend that I was a dog. I think this is why the story is about "three little puppy dogs." Squirrels amused me when they would run and play in the trees. My dogs would always bark at them as they jumped from branch to branch. After it would rain, my brother and I would walk in the street and look for worms in the standing water along the curbs. I loved catching and playing with lizards; I would even wear them as earring. I am not sure what a lizard snake is, I may have been talking about an iguana.

Roald Dahl

The following information about Roald Dahl was taken from the following web site:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm

Dahl's stories have unexpected endings and strange, menacing atmospheres. The principle of "fair play" works in unconventional but unavoidable ways. Uncle Oswald, a seducer from 'The Visitor', gets seduced. In 'Parson's Pleasure' an antique dealer tastes his own medicine and the Twits from THE TWITS (1980) use glue to catch birds and meet their own gluey ends. In 'Lamb to the Slaughter' the evidence of a murder, a frozen leg of lamb, is eaten by officers who in vain search for the murder weapon. The story was inspired by a meeting with the writer Ian Fleming at a dinner party. Puns, word coinages, and neologism are more often used in the children's stories, whereas in adult fiction the emphasis is on imaginative plots. In addition to his children's books, Dahl also aroused much controversy with his politically incorrect opinions - he was accused of anti-Semitism and antifeminism and when a prowler managed to get into Queen Elizabeth's bedroom, Dahl was wrongly suspected of giving to the unwanted guest the whole idea in one of his books, The BFG (1982).

Study Guide for Nursery Rhymes

• Oral tradition
• No finite set
• Age unknown
• Peter and Iona Opie recorded rhymers over 200 years old
• Grow and change over time
• Mother Goose-uniquely English; came out of Britain
  
• 1744- 1st known collection of nursery rhymes; entitled Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book
  
• John Newberry attached Mother Goose
• 1765 he published Mother Goose's Melody
• took Mother Goose idea from Perault
  
• 1st poetry most children learn
• talk about everyday life issues
• have historical connections
• focuses on things senses can grasp
• children prefer humor or tell a story
• prefer strong rhythms and strong rhyme

The following is a picture I drew when I was five, along with a story.





This time we are lucky. It didn't get the power line. My brother was awake last night. When I wanted the light on, he wanted it off. He did turn it off.


When I was younger and it was storming I didn't like to be in my room by myself, so i would go into my brothers and sleep on the top bunk of his bed. I also fell asleep with the light on and was scared of the dark.

Roald Dahl Cont.

The following information about Roald Dahl was taken from the following website:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm

MY UNCLE OSWALD (1979) was Dahl's first full-length novel, a bizarre story of a scheme for procuring and selling the sperm of the world's most powerful and brilliant men.
Dahl received three Edgar Allan Poe Awards (1954, 1959, 1980). In 1982 he won his first literary prize with THE BFG, a story about Big Friendly Giant, who kidnaps and takes a little girl to Giantland, where giants eat children. In 1983 he received World Fantasy Convention Lifetime Achievement award.
Dahl died of an infection on November 23, 1990, in Oxford. Dahl's autobiographical books, BOY: TALES OF CHILDHOOD and GOING SOLO, appeared in 1984 and 1986 respectively. The success of his books resulted in the foundation of the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery in Aylesbury, not far from where he lived.

February 2, 1994

The following is another story I wrote when I was five:

Once upon a time, there was three little "wolfs". They were real nice. Then they saw their friends, the pigs. Then the daddy wolf came out. Then the mama wolf came. Then the papa pig came. Then the mama one did. Then the friendly wolf came out. And then a bull came walking towards them and it was a nice bull. He came up to them and he licked them. Then another wolf came. And then the next wolf came. Then a pig came. Then a friendly bull came because we do have one at our ranch. Other wolf came and petted him.

The end.

When I was younger I enjoyed going out to our ranch with my dad and brother. We would feed and pet the cows. They would come up one by one and eat out of your hand; when they do this they end up licking you. There were a few bulls that you could walk up to and pet, I think this is why I wrote this story.

Study Guide for THe Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

• 3 levels that are visible in the text
• The underworld-the goblins
• The goblins started off as human beings
• This is a spiritual underworld full of darkness and evil
• The goblins reject the light
• They have a government
• Theory of devolution- goblins rejecting the light makes them less human
• Evil is easily recognizable
• The real world
• World we recognize as daily life
• The heavenly world
• Mainly present in the grandmother’s attic
• Wise woman figure is a spiritual representative
• Lives apart from the rest of the characters
• Attic-place of light
• Represents safety and love
• Maze of light- the moon is used as a guide
• The fire of roses- the roses are not consumed by the flames
• Not everyone can see the grandmothers lamp