Roald Dahl's Mischief and Mayhem

December 15, 2014
Attention, pranksters in search of inspiration! Learn from a master with this mix of extracted passages, quizzes and fresh, sometimes even feasible, exploits.Warning adults away at the outset, Woodward begins with a biographical sketch. She then goes on to alternate pranktastic highlights from Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Boy, Fantastic Mr. Fox and other works with suggestions for (somewhat) less destructive enrichment activities. The latter feature totally arbitrary difficulty ratings and range from fitting a jelly worm into a peach to such less-likely tricks as capturing a dodo-"YOU WILL NEED: One time machine. One sherry trifle. One net"- or a Vermicious Knid. One particularly fiendish prank instructs readers to render a computer mouse inoperative with a small piece of sticky tape. For changes of pace, frequent quizzes challenge readers to pick from a list the revolting items that were in Mr Twit's beard and like diversions. As ever, Blake's scribbled vignettes add suitably frolicsome notes. Along with tempting hesitant fans-"Go on, do it. Roald Dahl would"-this sampler may persuade "the 27 people on the planet who haven't heard of him" to a better acquaintance. A properly subversive spinoff. (answers section) (Humor. 9-12)

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