Jody Little (Children's Literature)
Dahl’s autobiography of his first 20 years of life begins with a brief description of his parents’ backgrounds, including his father’s death when Dahl was only three years old. Dahl then moves into short memories from his childhood and school days beginning with his year in kindergarten and then the move to Llandaff Cathedral School. While at Llandaff, Dahl writes fondly of the local sweet shop owned by a “small skinny old hag with a moustache on her upper lip and a mouth as sour as a green gooseberry.” He tells the story of finding a dead mouse at school and deciding with his friends to put the mouse in a candy jar at the sweet shop, a prank that eventually earns him four strokes of the headmaster’s cane. At age nine, Dahl moves to boarding school where he begins to write a weekly letter home to his mother, a habit he continues for 32 years. His mother kept all the letters from Roald, and he includes many snippets of them throughout the book. The final section includes memories of his teen years at Repton School and his first job outside of school with the Shell Company. Fans of Roald Dahl’s books will recognize details from his life, such as the sweet shop, Gobstoppers, the villainous adults, and the Cadbury Coffee Cream Bar, which later led to some of Dahl’s most memorable children’s books. 2009 (orig. 1984), Puffin Books/Penguin, $6.99. Ages 10 up.

Bill Boyle (Books for Keeps No. 38, May 1986)
Subtitled 'Tales of childhood', this is a fascinating insight into the young life of Roald Dahl. All are true, and act as indicators of the sources of much of the material in Dahl's books. 'An English school in those days was purely a moneymaking business owned and operated by the Headmaster,' So, naturally, money could be made by encouraging parents to send parcels of food to their offspring, thereby reducing the amount he would have to spend on school meals. Part and parcel of the 'make your own Headmaster kit' was 'the kind of flashing grin a shark might give to a small fish just before he gobbles it up.' Very interesting and worthwhile reading as background to the developing Roald Dahl, from dot to twenty, an adolescent world of boarding school and boaters fagging and tuck boxes holding frogs and slugs. Category: Middle/Secondary. . ...., Puffin, D1.95. Ages 10 to 14.