Poor Sally and her brother. It's cold and wet and they're stuck in the house with nothing to do . . . until a giant cat in a hat shows up, transforming the dull day into a madcap adventure and almost wrecking the place in the process! Written by Dr. Seuss in 1957 in response to the concern that "pallid primers [with] abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls' were leading to growing illiteracy among children, The Cat in the Hat (the first Random House Beginner Book) changed the way our children learn how to read.Book Details: \
   Format: Hardcover \
   Publication Date: 3/12/1957 \
   Pages: 72 \
   Reading Level: Age 3 and Up

Strip after strip after strip.Some books just win you over. I too sleep with the baseball bat beside my bed to kill the monster lurking down it.I wonder I still may not be old enough to not start doing this poll manipulation thing with my dad either.I do not want my wife to have such a kid in the house. I want to be that kid rather. We might consider a tiger instead.With characters sketched up as well as these, you will be going out of your way not to give this one a 5 star.Wonderful and addictive.Did I say 5 stars already? Make that 5 stars plus one more for the timelessness captured.

Harry Potter's life is miserable. His parents are dead and he's stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he's a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid. But even within the Wizarding community, he is special. He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry.Though Harry's first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it's his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.Full of sympathetic characters, wildly imaginative situations, and countless exciting details, the first installment in the series assembles an unforgettable magical world and sets the stage for many high-stakes adventures to come.

Matilda is a little girl who is far too good to be true. At age five-and-a-half she's knocking off double-digit multiplication problems and blitz-reading Dickens. Even more remarkably, her classmates love her even though she's a super-nerd and the teacher's pet. But everything is not perfect in Matilda's world. For starters she has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived. Then there's the large, busty nightmare of a school principal, Miss ("The") Trunchbull, a former hammer-throwing champion who flings children at will and is approximately as sympathetic as a bulldozer. Fortunately for Matilda, she has the inner resources to deal with such annoyances: astonishing intelligence, saintly patience, and an innate predilection for revenge.She warms up with some practical jokes aimed at her hapless parents, but the true test comes when she rallies in defense of her teacher, the sweet Miss Honey, against the diabolical Trunchbull. There is never any doubt that Matilda will carry the day. Even so, this wonderful story is far from predictable. Roald Dahl, while keeping the plot moving imaginatively, also has an unerring ear for emotional truth. The reader cares about Matilda because in addition to all her other gifts, she has real feelings.

I feel full of the joys of spring! This was such a delightful little book. My morbid, inner kid couldn't have been more ecstatic! Should I call someone a twit or a nitwit? I guess, no. That would be very rude of me! My doppelgänger would approve otherwise. And since I'm not like my sinister doppelgänger, I would leave all the sheer nastiness to him along with Mr. and Mrs. Twit, who are also quite repulsive, if you ask me. I'd rather have pleasant thoughts rather than wicked ones.\
  "If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until it gets so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."\
Now, where do I begin? Ah yes! Let's start with Mr. and Mrs. Twit. Well, I assure you, that both of them are a little bit, say, a few sandwiches short of a picnic or if you prefer something blunter, they're not one of the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree. Mr. Twit is a very bushy, nailbrushy-faced, grizzly old man who doesn't bother with his appearance.I can't for the life of me understand why he'd rather bury himself in that grubby face of his. And please ladies and gentlemen, I implore you not to peer into that dreadful crevasse of moustachy bristles filled with mouldy and magotty morsels!Mrs. Twit is just like Mr. Twit, but she's no better than him. She's as foul as his malodorous husband with a walking stick and a glass eye!They are one of the most hideous characters who'd exact revenge upon each other, given a chance.\
  "I'll swish you to a swazzle! I'll swash you to a swizzle! I'll gnash you to a gnozzle! I'll gnosh you to a gnazzle!"\
And if that wasn't enough for vengeance, there's this Giant Skillywiggler with teeth like screwdrivers, eat-me-up-while-its-hot Squiggly Spaghetti, the dreadful shrink, some Hugtight extraordinary glue for extra staying power — perfect for your Wednesday's Bird Pie supper! Or even Boy Pie supper for that matter, if you want to satiate your cannibalistic tendencies.\
  "He's going to boil us!""He'll stew us alive!" "He'll cook us with carrots!"\
Oh, what a fun way to bake some spoiled children! Errr... I beg your pardon, but that was my doppelgänger talking. I have to restrain him once more. Now, on to the Twit's garden, we go! This two nasty couple keep Muggle-Wump and his family locked in a protective cage. This poor family are coerced to perform upside-down tricks for the Twit's amusement, including eating, dancing, playing, drinking, and all the jazz! What the Twits don't realize is that Muggle-Wump along with the Roly-Poly Bird is crafting a brilliant plan to get rid of them once and for all...The Twits was truly an imaginative yet horrid tale filled with peculiar characters, unbridled wickedness, misanthropic undertones, playful wit, and clever word play — all done with cheeky humour! It seems that Dahl himself has a certain kind of aversion when it comes to unkempt appearance. Is Dahl implying that Mr. Twit needs some kind of manscaping or he isn't just fond of all that hairy mess? If you analyse further, he seems to be also discriminatory. Just look at Mrs. Twit's glass eye, which in reality you might call lazy eye or amblyopia. A case of lookism? The way he narrates this one too: "But these were English birds and they couldn’t understand the weird African language the monkeys spoke." A case of racism? As whimsical as this story might seem, there are bullying, toxic relationships, bias against idiots (thus the title), and revenge (is a dish best served cold). Well, that's only my hypotheses. Despite all that speculation, if you dig further and deeper, you'll find a hidden gem. And that is... the Golden Rule — a maxim we all know by heart and might be the heart of the story too!

Captured by a giant! The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It's lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, the Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, or any of the other giants-rather than the BFG-she would have soon become breakfast. When Sophie hears that they are flush-bunking off in England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!

Tonight I just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate factory with my son. This is the first chapter book I've read all the way through with him. And it was a ton of fun. First off, I'll admit that I love the movie. I grew up with it. (I'm talking about the Gene Wilder version, of course.)I'll even admit to liking the movie better than the book. Which is something that doesn't happen very often with me. That said, the book is really, really good. It held my four-year old's attention. It's silly, and it's fun. And it's DARK. For those of you who haven't read the book, let me underline this fact for you. Dahl takes pains to really detail the fact that Charlie and his family aren't just hungry and poor. They're destitute. Charlie sleeps on a mattress on the floor. In the winter they are cold, and they're starving to death. And if you think I'm exaggerating on that last point, I'm not. One of the chapters is titled: The Family Begins to Starve. But you know what? I like this book better because of that. It's not sanitized pablum written by committee to be inoffensive. It's the story of a little boy who is in a fucking awful situation, but he is still good and kind and polite and then something really nice happens to him. That's a trope I can get behind. Its it a good book to read with your kids? Absolutely. That said, allow me to tangent off and share my thoughts as a total bastard:If Willie Wonka actually hired workers and paid them a living wage, maybe Charlie Bucket wouldn't be starving to death in the first place. Follow me here. Wonka is effectively running a company where everyone is paid in scrip. The Oompa Loompas are paid, quite literally, in beans. Beans that I'm guessing he has the Oompa Loompas themselves growing in some huge underground cavern. Let's not even get into the ethical tarpit of the fact that Wonka uproots an entire indigenous culture and enslaves them. Let's just look at this from a raw numbers point of view. Pure economics. The Oompa Loompas work in the factory. They are not paid. They never leave the factory. That means they don't pay rent. They don't buy groceries. They don't go to the movies, or take taxis ,or buy clothes. But *everyone* buys Wonka's chocolate. That means that money goes into the factory, but it doesn't come back out into the town. As a result, the local economy is crap. And it's because of this that Charlie's dad can't get a decent job. What's more, it's because of this that his dad *loses* his shitty job, and his family is starving to death. Willie Wonka isn't a childlike magic maker. He's a billionaire corporate fuckwit. He's the candy equivalent of Monsanto. There's no government oversight there. Osha would never have approved that bullshit boiled sweet boat and chocolate river. No. Dude is untouchable. And don't tell me he isn't. That shit that goes on with the other kids? Nobody even *thinks* of suing him. None of the parents even *hint* at it. He probably owns half the judges in the state, and a handful of senators, too. He's a fucking supervillian. And I would paid serious money to see a story where Batman kicks his ass. *End Rant* In closing, let me share something that Oot said while I was reading him this book: "Dad, Willie Wonka is just a regular human, but he *is* a little bit of a wizard like you." 

When James accidentally drops some magic crystals by the old peach tree, strange things start to happen. The peach at the top of the tree begins to grow, and before long it's as big as a house. When James discovers a secret entranceway into the fruit and crawls inside, he meets wonderful new friends--the Old-Green-Grasshopper, the dainty Ladybug, and the Centipede of the multiple boots. After years of feeling like an outsider in his aunts' house, James finally found a place where he belongs. With a snip of the stem, the peach household starts rolling away--and the adventure begins!Roald Dahl's first and most widely celebrated book for young people continues to thrill readers around the world."This is a stunning book to be cherished for its story, a superb fantasy."--Chicago Tribune"A beautifully written, fantastic book."--Christian Science Monitor

This beloved book by E. B. White, author of Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan, is a classic of children's literature that is "just about perfect." This high-quality paperback features vibrant illustrations colorized by Rosemary Wells!Some Pig. Humble. Radiant. These are the words in Charlotte's Web, high up in Zuckerman's barn. Charlotte's spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend. They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter.E. B. White's Newbery Honor Book is a tender novel of friendship, love, life, and death that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come. This edition contains newly color illustrations by Garth Williams, the acclaimed illustrator of E. B. White's Stuart Little and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, among many other books.--harpercollins.com

This is not a fairy-tale. This is about real witches. Real witches don't ride around on broomsticks. They don't even wear black cloaks and hats. They are vile, cunning, detestable creatures who disguise themselves as nice, ordinary ladies. So how can you tell when you're face to face with one? Well, if you don't know yet you'd better find out quickly-because there's nothing a witch loathes quite as much as children and she'll wield all kinds of terrifying powers to get rid of them.

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