Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Genre: Fantasy
Author: Roald Dahl
Awards: New England  Round Table of Children's Librarians Award (1972)
              Surrey School Award (1973)
              Millennium Children's Book Award and Blue Peter Book Award (2000)
Age Group: 8 to 10-years old

Teacher Evaluation: As a teacher, I would use this in a third grade or second-grade classroom. I think the story offers plenty of descriptive words that would help children expand on their vocabulary. The only thing I would be wary of is some made up words and language in the book could confuse some students. The book also has some choice words that I think the teacher needs to prepare for by finding a replacement word or perhaps skipping over it.

Summary: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is about a young boy, Charlie Bucket, from a poor family. Charlie's family consists of his two parents and four grandparents. The family is poor and struggles to have enough food for everyone. Charlie is a sweet young boy who doesn't take any extra food his family tries to give him. Charlie often bonds with his grandparents by hearing them tells stories, in the book CHarlie's Grandpa Joe tells him amazing stories about Willy Wonka. Willy Wonka is the owner of the great big chocolate factories that Charlie can see from his home. Wonka's chocolate bars are sold all around the world. Grandpa Joe tells Charlie how Willy Wonka had to shut down his amazing factory because spies were being hired by other candy companies to steal his ideas. Later on, the factory reopened but the gates never did, nobody knows who is working for Mr. Wonka but sometimes people saw small shadows come from the windows of the factory. Soon after the story about Mr. WOnka, there was a story in the paper that Mr. Wonka was opening the gates to his factory to the 5 lucky people who found a golden ticket in one of his chocolate bars. The family wasn't wealthy enough to buy a chocolate bar often like many other people, the only time they would buy one was for Charlie's birthday which was coming up. Charlie's birthday arrived shortly after the two first golden tickets were found. The first ticket was found by a rather obese young boy named Augustus and the second ticket was found by a girl named Veruca who was very spoiled. On Charlie's birthday, he received his Wonka chocolate bar but no golden ticket. Soon after the next two tickets were found by a television-obsessed young boy named Mike and a girl who enjoys chewing gum named Violet.  With only one ticket left to find, one-day Grandpa Joe called Charlie over to him and gave him a secret silver coin no one knew he had. Grandpa Joe told Charlie to go buy another chocolate bar so they could give it another go. Charlie returned back to Grandpa Joe after buying the Wonka bar only to see that is didn't have a golden ticket. Days went on and the winter got harsher for the family. The family began to starve more after Charlie's father lost his job. Charlie began to feel weak due to his hunger so while other children played he moved slowly to preserve energy. While doing so, Charlie saw a dollar on the floor. Charlie use the dollar to buy him chocolate bars and the rest he was going to take home, only his second candy bar had the golden ticket. Charlie was one of the five that would go into Wonka's factory and receive a lifetime supply of chocolate and candy. Grandpa Joe accompanied Charlie to the factory trip, as the trip around the factory progressed one by one each child began to disappear. The children wouldn't listen to Mr. Wonka's warnings and would find themselves in terrible positions. The Oompa Loompas (the unique workers at the factory) would escort the parents of each of the children to where they could find and help their child. Charlie is the last child on the tour when Mr. Wonka reveals to him that he will be leaving his factory to Charlie and his family. The book ends with Mr. Wonka going to Charlie's home and telling his family their new home is at the factory.