Last night Brent asked what I was working on. “A novel unit for Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory,” I answered. He said, “That was
a book before it was a movie?” I just
looked at him, blankly. Sometimes I
forget the difference in regular street knowledge and teacher knowledge. “Of course it was a book before it was a
movie!” I answered, “Don’t you remember reading it as a kid?” Brent shook his head so I checked the copyright
on the book. It was written in 1964,
over a decade even before my older man was born. “A classic!” I told him.
There’s something extra special about writing a novel unit for a book I
loved as a kid. I found myself rereading
passages, both as I relived the way I pictured them 20 years ago and in awe of
how exactly they planned the original movie to match the book (think Gene
Wilder, not Johnny Depp). This may very
well be THE most fun children’s book to read and then watch the movie
adaptation for—it’s just delightful the way the characters and setting were
brought to life to life so accurately 40 years ago without the benefit of
computer technology.
This novel unit finishes off a set of Roald Dahl units that I plan to
use in my own classroom in April for a Roald Dahl author study. I simply love Roald Dahl. None of his books are necessarily my very
favorite stand-alone children’s book, but he IS my favorite all-around
children’s author. He was a creative genius,
plain and simple and his books are rich with inspiring and heart-warming
themes.
It’s always different to study a book as an adult than it was when I was
younger, and this time I was struck by the fact that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is about a whole lot more than
Oompa-Loompas and chocolate rivers. It’s
about hope and a mind-blowing turn of
events for a boy named Charlie Bucket whose life had seemed hopeless. As Willy Wonka told Charlie in the last
chapter, “You mustn’t despair! Nothing is
impossible!” (p. 152) Let this
classic novel remind you…
(20% off in my TPT store through Saturday)
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