Fantastic Mr Dahl
by
Michael Rosen
Illustrated by Quentin Blake
This new biography of Roald Dahl, written especially for children by former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen, has been much anticipated - it's been ten years in the making!
Michael says he is Roald Dahl's biggest fan, so much so that he founded a book prize in Roald’s name: the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Michael relays his own encounter with Roald years ago at a television studio in the opening chapter, and the influence it had on him, one of our most treasured children’s poets, is undeniable.
The book tells Roald’s life in three segments, covering his childhood that we know from Boy, complete with tales of Roald’s own tricks and plotting, through to his pilot days during the war and his adult life with family and his path into writing. To support the narrative, there are a family tree, photos and letters (complete with spelling mistakes) from the Roald Dahl Museum archive, some of which have never been published before. The book is illustrated by Quentin Blake, who illustrated Roald Dahl's books, giving it a distinctly Dahl-esque feel.
Michael’s voice is pitch-perfect for young readers - yes, it’s a fact book, and will be used in classrooms to support any Dahl reading, but Michael’s own ability to tell stories imaginatively yet truthfully, and to dip in and out of the reader’s consciousness, means that the narrative has an immersive, fictional quality. Adhering to Roald’s own motif, ‘It has to be funny’, Fantastic Mr Dahl certainly is funny and great fun to read.
Publisher: Puffin
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Quentin Blake
Children's Laureate 1999-2001
Quentin Blake was born in 1932 and read English at Cambridge, before attending Chelsea Art College. He has won many major prizes for illustration, including the Kate Greenaway Medal (1980) and the Red House Children's Book Award (1981) for Mister Magnolia. He is also the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration and in 1990 was voted 'The Illustrator's Illustrator' by Observer Magazine. A tireless promoter of children's literature – and a long-time collaborator with roald Dahl – Quentin Blake was awarded the OBE in 1988 and in 2005 he was awarded a CBE for services to Children's Literature. In the most recent New Year’s Honours list he has been knighted.Quentin was the inaugural Children's Laureate (1999-2001), an experience he recorded in his book Laureate's Progress. During his time in the role, he celebrated children's books and children's book illustration with a range of projects and exhibitions, and conceived the idea for the House of Illustration, the world's first centre dedicated to the art of illustration in all its forms.
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Michael Rosen
Children's Laureate 2007-2009
Michael Rosen is one of the best-known figures not only in the children's book world but also the British arts scene. His first book of children's poems was published in 1974, and he has gone on to write numerous award winning children's poetry books, picture books and non-fiction, such as Quick, Let's Get Out of Here and We're Going on a Bear Hunt.
Alongside this he performs, teaches, lectures, presents Word of Mouth on Radio 4 and reviews books for the Guardian. In 2007, Michael was appointed the fifth Children's Laureate - a role which he says will be used to be an 'ambassador of fun'.
http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/
Michael Rosen
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