For the last six months or so I have been reading a chapter a day out of Mr. Dahl's books before school. Since my son was in pre-school I have been reading to him before he goes off to school. At first it was to calm his nerves about going but now it's become routine and it allows us to have some special time together before he's gone for the next six hours.

We started with The Fantastic Mr.Fox then moved on to Charlie and the Chocolate factory, the Enormous Crocodile, Charlie and the Glass elevator, the BFG and now Matilda. (He read Esio Trot by himself in school) Whenever possible we view the movie when we are finished. I think we both enjoy these books because the characters are raw, sometimes cruel, but in the end good always trumps evil. I believe my son also enjoys the bad words. Ass is used rather liberally throughout Matilda.

I wonder to myself how Roald Dahl feels about children. I sense that he really doesn't like them, or at least has very little patience for them. He issues all kinds of proclamations about bad parenting in both Charlie and Matilda. And for the most part I would agree with him. However, I believe his main philosophy of child rearing is that they should be left alone, the less interference from the parents the better. I wonder if this is a legitimate point of view or just a way to make him feel better about the way he raised his children.

Irregardless we have been enjoying the books and as soon as Matilda is done we will start the Witches.