Roald Dahl

Since I've just finished a little parade of Dahl books, I thought maybe I'd make a few comments about his writing.
First the ones I read over the past week or two:
Matilda
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me
The BFG
The Twits

In the past I've also read: James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Of them all, I would have say there is really no argument. Matilda is the best, hands down. The characters were best developed, the story line was most engaging, it was well paced and not overly didactic. It's funny to me that some critics get down on the early children's books for being didactic and remarking how far we've come, and though I haven't necessarily heard them compare the old to Dahl, I would say he kind of defies the idea of progress in that area. However, he definitely has advanced in the aspect of silliness, generally speaking. Of course Alice in Wonderland is pretty silly and so is Edward Lear's collection. Interestingly, however, neither of these earlier works is very didactic.

Well, I don't think my critique is getting too far, kind of hard to comment on the slew of them, but overall they're pretty good books. If anything, I was just surprised at how slow they were. Matilda was and I remember James and the Peach keeping up a good pace, but the BFG and The Pelly were terrifically slow. You'd think they'd be quick reads, being rather short books, but my attention wasn't as readily captivated.