'Boy: Tales of Childhood' Book Review

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‘Boy: Tales of Childhood’

‘Boy: Tales of Childhood’ is an autobiographical novel, written by the award-winning children’s author, Roald Dahl. Dahl has published and sold a multitude of novels for children worldwide. ‘Boy’ is the first instalment in the autobiographical series about his life and ‘Going Solo’ is the second and final novel in the series. ‘Going solo’ outlines the latter part of his life, whereas ‘Boy’, recounts the early stages of his life and how he grew up in the public schooling system at the time.

‘Boy: Tales of Childhood’ follows the life of Roald Dahl, a children’s author who, to this date, has published forty eight novels and many more screenplay and movie transcripts. ‘Boy’ outlines the endeavours of Roald Dahl and how he coped with physical abuse, loss of loved ones and school. The novel also describes what Dahl enjoyed doing as a child and the adventures he had during his juvenile years.

The main themes that are explored in this novel are, nostalgia and positivity and resilience.
The first theme, positivity and resilience, outlines Dahl’s many sad and painful experiences and the resilience of his father, Harold. Throughout the novel, Dahl provides emphasis and heavily describes how he was persistently bullied at school. He also wrote about the passing of his loved ones. Dahl received severe, unnecessary punishment. Despite the great pains and sorrows that filled his life, Roald Dahl chose to find joy and happiness in small and insignificant activities. For example, he enjoyed riding his tricycle to school and purchasing sweets from the sweet shop in Llandaff. These very events were the defining moments of his childhood. At the age of fourteen, Dahl’s father had an accident that ultimately resulted in ...

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... to Dahl, the one that used to dish out beatings as well. It was as if he had a thirst for the blood curdling screams of his pupils. It was later discovered that John Christie, Geoffrey Fisher’s successor, was responsible for most of the beatings that discredited Fisher.

All in all, ‘Boy: Tales of Childhood’ is a great autobiographical novel, which combines expert storytelling and real events from the life of Roald Dahl, to create an overall enjoyable novel. Dahl has done a great job of keeping the readers on the edge of their seat while providing them with information about his life and how he transformed into an award-winning children’s author. This novel is laced with interesting characters, satisfying events and educative morals. ‘Boy’ is a popular novel amongst younger readers in search of inspiration and assurance that anyone can achieve anything.

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