Dedicated "with affection and sympathy to all young people who are going through that long and difficult metamorphosis when they are no longer children and have not yet become adults", Roald Dahl's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More contains stories a bit more sophisticated than Matilda or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I've found that these are great stories to read aloud to young teens, who sooner or later just might pick up the book themselves. The stories are:
- Lucky Break
- "How I Became a Writer"
- A Piece of Cake
- (First Story--1942)
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
- In which a rich man sets out to make himself richer, becomes a yogi, learns to see through things (like cards at the blackjack table), becomes a nicer person, and donates millions to orphanages around the world
- The Boy Who Talked with Animals
- PETA enthusiasts will love this one
- The Hitchhiker
- My personal favorite: in which the narrator, out for a drive in his new BMW, stops long enough to pick up a professional fingersmith
- The Mildenhall Treasure
- A true account of the greatest treasure ever found in the British Isles, a large collection of Roman silver (Which is now owned by the British Museum, and can be viewed at www.britannia.com/tours/bmrbgal/mildenhall.html)
- The Swan
- "Some people, when they have taken too much and have been driven beyond the point of endurance, simply crumple and give up. There are others, though they are not many, who will for some reason always be unconquerable. You meet them in time of war and also in time of peace. They have an indomitable spirit and nothing, neither pain nor torture nor threat of death, will cause them to give up."
Pick this up sometime; give it to a child, read it to a child, or just enjoy it yourself on a lazy afternoon. You'll be glad you did.
Roald Dahl, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, 1977, Puffin Books. "The Swan" quotation from p. 97.
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