Listening to the Silence

In this charming children's story, Roald Dahl blends reality with fantasy when he creates the world inside Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Charlie Bucket is an earnest young boy, growing up very poor on the edges of town under the shadow of the famous chocolatier's candy factory. When it is announced that five lucky children will have an opportunity to tour the factory, provided they have a golden ticket of course, Charlie doesn't think he stands a chance. Until the impossible happens.

Little Charlie and four other children, Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregard, Veruca Salt, and Mike Teavee, arrive at the factory early on the morning of February 1st. They are met there by Willy Wonka himself who personally takes them on a tour of his amazing and fantastical factory. They see there a meadow crafted entirely of chocolate through which runs a liquid chocolate river, the testing room where they learn about a new experimental chewing gum, the Nut Room, the Chocolate TV room and of course the great glass elevator.

It has been a very long time since I last read this book, but my son and I decided that it would be the perfect bedtime story. We were only planning to read one chapter a night, as per our usual routine, but instead there were frequent pleas to read just one more. We were both thoroughly captivated by the charm and humor found on every page. While the story is simplistic from an adult perspective it is full of the same whimsy and creativity that inhabit a child's mind, making a most enjoyable read.