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davidcottington's review against another edition
4.0
Love reading about Roald Dahl's childhood, can see how it's informed some of his fiction.
Really funny and interesting for any Roald Dahl fan.
Really funny and interesting for any Roald Dahl fan.
snippie99's review against another edition
3.0
Feel weird giving a biography a rating so went for the middle ground. It was interesting to hear the stories of Roald Dahl as a young boy causing mischief and mayhem while also having great love for his family.
jesslolsen's review against another edition
4.0
In Boy, Roald Dahl recounts his days as a child growing up in England. From his years as a prankster at boarding school to his envious position as a chocolate tester for Cadbury's, Roald Dahl's boyhood was as full of excitement and the unexpected as are his world-famous, best-selling books. Packed with anecdotes -- some funny, some painful, all interesting -- this is a book that's sure to please.
This book was recommended to my by a good friend to read while I was on holidays, and I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started reading - I guess I thought it was going to be a story as to how Roald Dahl came up with the characters and stories he wrote that I grew up with. Instead I got to read about HIS fascinating early life growing up. And it honestly really is fascinating! You just don't get to experience life quite the way you got to back then - so many opportunities, and being a young child then is so different to what it is now.
Boy is easy to read and you get the gist that even early on Dahl had a wicked sense of humour. This autobiography has Dahl growing up with his family, going to boarding school, and you leave just as he gets his first job after school has finished. There are hints about his time in the war and overseas, but I know I will get the next book so I can find out all the details.
This book was recommended to my by a good friend to read while I was on holidays, and I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started reading - I guess I thought it was going to be a story as to how Roald Dahl came up with the characters and stories he wrote that I grew up with. Instead I got to read about HIS fascinating early life growing up. And it honestly really is fascinating! You just don't get to experience life quite the way you got to back then - so many opportunities, and being a young child then is so different to what it is now.
Boy is easy to read and you get the gist that even early on Dahl had a wicked sense of humour. This autobiography has Dahl growing up with his family, going to boarding school, and you leave just as he gets his first job after school has finished. There are hints about his time in the war and overseas, but I know I will get the next book so I can find out all the details.
sraev19's review against another edition
4.0
Boy is the fourteenth book in the Roald Dahl box set I own, and I had no idea it was an autobiography of Dahl’s upbringing. I’m not one for reading biographies and memoirs, and I was disappointed at first when I realized this wouldn’t be another fantastical and wacky Dahl adventure.
But I needn’t have worried. Dahl still knows how to weave a compelling story. In fact, the book is a collection of funny, horrifying, heartrending vignettes spanning Dahl’s youth up to his first taste of freedom at twenty.
Though Boy gets off to a slow start, the book quickly picks up pace. Dahl switches from autobiography mode to storytelling mode, and soon it feels like reading any of Dahl’s other works for children. The short stories have memorable villains, crises to overcome or endure, and plenty of schoolboy high jinks.
Included with the stories are Quentin Blake’s signature illustrations as well as real photographs and pictures of Dahl's handwritten letters to home. Unfortunately, the poor quality of the images makes the pictures dark and gauzy and the letters hard to read. Nonetheless, I had fun deciphering snippets of boy Roald’s writing, and the images remind readers that these tales are based on reality.
And what a hard reality it was. Dahl’s experienced vicious headmasters, corporal punishment, surgery without anesthetic, and other abuses. It’s no wonder so many of his kids’ stories centre children utilizing magic and smarts to exact revenge on the adults who harm them.
But I needn’t have worried. Dahl still knows how to weave a compelling story. In fact, the book is a collection of funny, horrifying, heartrending vignettes spanning Dahl’s youth up to his first taste of freedom at twenty.
Though Boy gets off to a slow start, the book quickly picks up pace. Dahl switches from autobiography mode to storytelling mode, and soon it feels like reading any of Dahl’s other works for children. The short stories have memorable villains, crises to overcome or endure, and plenty of schoolboy high jinks.
Included with the stories are Quentin Blake’s signature illustrations as well as real photographs and pictures of Dahl's handwritten letters to home. Unfortunately, the poor quality of the images makes the pictures dark and gauzy and the letters hard to read. Nonetheless, I had fun deciphering snippets of boy Roald’s writing, and the images remind readers that these tales are based on reality.
And what a hard reality it was. Dahl’s experienced vicious headmasters, corporal punishment, surgery without anesthetic, and other abuses. It’s no wonder so many of his kids’ stories centre children utilizing magic and smarts to exact revenge on the adults who harm them.
Toward the end of the book, Dahl reflects on being a writer. He says that a writer “has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.” This valuing of freedom weaves through many of his books, and Boy shows us where the first threads started.
emerygirl's review against another edition
4.0
This is a really fun book about Roald Dahl's life. It is really a collection of short stories. A fun read.