Genre: fiction, young adult, fantasy
Publication info: Bantam, 1977 (originally published in 1964)
Pages: 160
Here's another one to add to my "why didn't I read this earlier?" category. It was always there on our bookshelf at home. My mom read it, my sisters read it, but for some reason I never picked it up until now. I can see now that I was missing out.
What prompted me to read this treasure of a book was finally seeing the recent film of the same title, the one starring Johnny Depp. I grew up on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the older musical with Gene Wilder (which I love), so I found the differences between the two movies striking. They told me the newer movie is closer to the book. I wanted to find out for myself.
My verdict: The newer movie probably is truer to the original story, but I read some things that only the older movie contained. Little bits of dialogue, features of the factory---stuff like that. Really, though, I should take the novel as a separate thing. It was a fun little adventure, very creative and very enjoyable to read, even for someone my age. I think it could go down as one of those timeless classics.
I find it interesting to compare the different Willy Wonkas from the book and films. The one from the book seems to be the nicest of the three. He's crazy, but he's also the most approachable. He reassures the group whenever a child gets "lost," something I don't remember the character doing in either movie. Gene Wilder's Wonka is eccentric and rather blunt, and Johnny Depp's portrayal seems almost sinister at times, so the character from the book feels friendly by comparison. The children and their families (except Charlie and Grandpa Joe) are the mean ones in the book. And they get what's coming to them.
One thing I particularly liked about the book was the songs the Oompa-Loompas sing every time a child messes up. There are great lessons to be learned from those. My favorite was the one about television. Not being a fan of TV myself, I thought this was a song that people today could do well to learn:
The most important thing we've learned,Amen, I say!
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, never, NEVER let
Them near your television set---
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
