Review: Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl

Title: Boy: Tales of Childhood
Author: Roald Dahl
Year: 2001
ISBN: 0-14-131140-1

Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl (1916 - 1990) is the first part of a two-part autobiography he had written and was first published in 1984. This review is made to the edition published in 2001 by Puffin Books. This book tells the story of Dahl when he was a young boy from the age of seven until he left high school at the age 18.

Dahl was one of the best loved and a well-known children author. His childhood was one that was quite out-of-the-ordinary but Dahl never enjoyed his schooldays although there were funny and exciting happenings. These amusing and exciting happenings were described in a quirky manner, the typical style Dahl used in writing his other books. 

Dahl told the story of his childhood, focusing on family summer vacations and schooldays. However, he never enjoyed his schooldays due to the strict and harsh discipline methods practised by both the day and boarding schools he had attended throughout his life. The not-so-good experience of being punished by the headmaster and/or teachers, not to mention senior students who bullied him made Dahl felt very aversed to his schooldays, and he would have preferred never to experience them ever again. Despite of them all, one good thing that came out of those miserable times was that Dahl had excelled in sports, especially Fives (a game similar to that of American handball) and squash-racquets. 

Family summer vacations were better memories for Dahl. He relished the times he spent with his family and was tremendously close to his mother. Those vacations were spent in Norway, the native country of Dahl's parents. The memories of these vacations were funny and happy moments to him and had very positive impact on his childhood.    

Not only that, Dahl was able to capture the essence of the suspense and excitement he had felt during these happenings with such vividness that readers would feel that they are transported to the time when those happenings took place. Readers would most likely be able to identify and relate to the emotions Dahl had experienced in this book.

Although Boy: Tales of Childhood is targeted primarily to children, adult readers would find this book to be entertaining in a quirky and light-hearted manner. It is an excellent book to introduce readers who have yet to come to know about this author and the books he had published during his lifetime. Readers would also come to know how and where Dahl had acquired ideas for writing those books.

I highly recommend this book to readers of all ages - it is an appropriate way to be introduced into the world of Roald Dahl, and yes this was one of the first books about him I have read when I initially discovered about this author not too long ago.