Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Today I finally got around to watching Charlie and Chocolate Factory. I was never exposed to the original book as a kid, so I approached the whole thing with a curious, open mind. The DVD of the movie I watched with my kids was NOT a crappy pirated one, but a 2 disk “deluxe edition” original that I recently bought. I found the movie very entertaining I liked the story line and concept a lot. The kids liked it too. Being a remake of the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, some people apparently were concerned that this Tim Burton (starring Johnny Depp) version would not do justice to the original book or the first movie. As I have neither read the book nor seenthe first movie I can’t comment on that..

But boy am I glad I have the 2 disk edition. On disk 2, which contained some really good ‘making of’ documentaries, I found a short BBC produced documentary on Roald Dahl (1916-1990), the writer of the book upon which the film is based and, as I learned, one of the most important and productive writer’s of children books in the 20th century. The documentary includes older interviews with Dahl himself, his widow, his children and his various collaborators. In that, it provides an amazing portrait of a really amazing, creative man.

It came as no surprise to me when I learned that Dahl hails from a Scandinavian origin. He was born in and grew up in Wales. But both his parent were Norwegian. You can count on the Scandinavians to deliver great children stories. In countries with long, bitter cold winters that lock kids into wooden cabins, how would families cope (in the days before TeeVee)? Well, by coming up with great children stories!

In his biography, published on the official (and excellent) Roald Dahl web site, it is recounted how his Norwegian mother was a great teller of Nordic tales, a talent that obviously Roald inherited.

A common feature that you’ll find in the writing of Nordic children authors is a sense that they write from a child’s point of view, often with a sense of mischievousness and devilish twists. Dahl himself saw himself as a child and allied himself with children against the boring world of adults.

In one of his books, the main character tells the children reading it:

‘When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: a stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is sparky.’

(note to self: be a sparky parent, not a stodgy one)

I can’t help but contrast this attitude to that of the mass of decidedly stodgy Arab children literature, which is often preoccupied with shoving adult ‘righteousness’ and ‘national values’ down the throats of the young or taking them on historicist trip that simply glorify the past.

If you are interested in Arabic translations of great Swedish children books try to check out your local book store for the publication of Dar Al-Muna. Started by Mona Henning over a decade ago this publishing house has put a great effort into bringing writers like Astrid Lingren, Gunilla Bergström, Sven Nordqvist and others.

In a recent quote in Al Ahram Weekly, Henning, who won the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) special award was obviously concerned about the state of Arab children’s book publishing:

At the stall of Dar Al-Muna, which publishes high quality literary children’s books translated from Swedish to Arabic, parents and children were browsing the books avidly, but seemed reluctant to make purchases. Mona Henning, the publisher who received the SIBF’s special prize this year, complains that the Arab writing for children is still in its early stages, which badly reflects on the sales of her books. “People think that my books are expensive. But the fact is that the content of the cheaper books they buy is shallow. Unfortunately, religious and educational books for children are usually the ones that sell most.”

Sadly I did not find a website for Dar Al-Muna. But after some Googling around I found the following contact info:

Al-Muna, Box 127, 182 05 Djursholm, Sweden
tel 08-21 05 65, 755 65 73, fax 08-622 61 51, mona.henning(at)swipnet.se

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