⋙ [PDF] Free Going Solo Roald Dahl Quentin Blake 9780141311425 Books

Going Solo Roald Dahl Quentin Blake 9780141311425 Books

Download As PDF : Going Solo Roald Dahl Quentin Blake 9780141311425 Books

Going Solo Roald Dahl Quentin Blake 9780141311425 Books

No wonder Dahl wrote such wonderfully awful characters as Ms. Trunchbull (sp?)--he had real-life inspiration! I read his account of getting his tonsils out to my 6th grade students each year to sell them on this book: with no anesthetic, his doctor said, "Open your mouth," and when Dahl did, he darted in with a scalpel and snick-snick, Dahl spit out two globs of flesh and a lot of blood. Well-ah, a tonsillectomy! And the scene of his sister taking the family for a drive in their first car! Oh my god! She didn't know how to turn it or stop it, but she let the little kids persuade her to go faster and faster! Bones are broken! It's nuts! And his teachers. Wow. Corporal punishment with a cane. I like to read the description of being whipped with a cane to my 6th graders when they complain about how strict we are on them so they can realize how good they actually have it. They're so aghast that they argue over who gets to read the whole book. Music to my ears.


Tags : Going Solo [Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.,Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake,Going Solo,Gardners Books,0141311428,Writers, poets & dramatists,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)

Going Solo Roald Dahl Quentin Blake 9780141311425 Books Reviews

We have the printed and Audio versions of this book. Dan stevens does a very good job of narrating. My 9 year olds were at the edge of their seat listening.
I loved these books, and I highly recommend them.
Before I read Roald Dahl's autobiographical books, "Boy," and "Going Solo," I thought that he wrote only children's books. What a pleasant surprise !
He was a very talented writer who really knew how to tell a fascinating story, with all the wonderful details that keep a reader interested. I only wish he had written a complete autobiography.
Boy and Going Solo are delightful books! Mr. Dahl writes smoothly and true. There is never any confusion for the reader. The sentences tumble from his pen, flowing in harmony across the pages as you see his life unfold. And what an interesting life! Do read it! You'll be happy you did!
Remarkably good WWII memoir. Dahl here is nothing like his kiddie books. "Solo" is tough, honest, and often downright grim. No romanticized WWII ace flyer bunk here!.
Another writer once told me that one of the most important elements to be found in a memoir is a "likeable" narrator. Roald Dahl is perhaps one of the MOST likeable of narrators. Modest to a fault and blessed with a very sly and subtle sense of humor, the story Dahl tells in GOING SOLO, his sequel to BOY, is perhaps one of the most readable memoirs of modern times. His story of the quick and almost informal training he received at a flying school in Africa shortly after Great Britain entered WWII, is hair-raising and nearly impossible to believe, except you do believe, because you trust this man. At six foot six inches tall, Dahl was physically quite unsuited to be a fighter pilot, noting that when seated in the various planes he flew, his knees were nearly under his chin and he had to hunch over to fit beneath the plane's canopy. But fly he did, even after surviving one horrific crash in the desert early on in his career as an RAF pilot. He sustained a very bad concussion (which was to come back to haunt him and finally "invalid" him out of service nearly two years later) and had his face bashed in. As he explained to his mother in a letter "My nose was bashed in ... and the ear nose and throat man pulled my nose out of the back of my head and shaped it and now it looks just as before except that it's a little bent about ..." Dahl went on to fly many combat missions in North Africa and Greece, usually against vastly superior odds, but somehow he managed to survive until the middle of 1941, when the migraine headaches caused by the aforementioned crash made him unfit for further flying. Dahl's nearly laconic and completely unself-conscious manner of writing about the things he did - absolutely heroic things - made me think of Sam Hynes's WWII memoir of his missions in the Pacific theater. Both writers downplay the importance of their roles. They never speak of heroics or derring-do, only about the importance of their comrades, doing the jobs they were trained to do and trying their best to simply stay alive. This was an enormously satisfying, moving and often hilarious tale. After reading these two slim volumes of memoirs by Dahl, I do wish he had written another. I have ordered his slim collection of stories about WWII already. What a wonderful writer - and gentleman - Roald Dahl was. - Tim Bazzett, author of SOLDIER BOY and LOVE, WAR & POLIO
Fine book; excellent writing. This is the personal tale of a master storyteller with experiences that are ordinary, yet extraordinary. As a young man working in Africa, Dahl signs up for the air corps and finds himself flying planes he was never taught to fly in battles that were never planned to be. What is most exciting about this book is that real life is more dramatic than anything that a fiction writer could dream up. It is one of the top five books I have read this year, and would highly recommend it to anyone with a sense of adventure. It is hard to portray what it's like to be up there in a Hurricane with enemy fighters after you, but Dahl does it with aplomb. I will wait a while and read this one again!
Real life good reading. Funny, Compulsive, Driving, Observant. Dahl's own story. I just kept reading and enjoying it. Almost like a book in two parts but he joins them well. One springs from within another. This man knows how to write. I was so grateful to find this book so well written and edited. Not an easy combo to find these days. Excellent, and I don't say that lightly.
No wonder Dahl wrote such wonderfully awful characters as Ms. Trunchbull (sp?)--he had real-life inspiration! I read his account of getting his tonsils out to my 6th grade students each year to sell them on this book with no anesthetic, his doctor said, "Open your mouth," and when Dahl did, he darted in with a scalpel and snick-snick, Dahl spit out two globs of flesh and a lot of blood. Well-ah, a tonsillectomy! And the scene of his sister taking the family for a drive in their first car! Oh my god! She didn't know how to turn it or stop it, but she let the little kids persuade her to go faster and faster! Bones are broken! It's nuts! And his teachers. Wow. Corporal punishment with a cane. I like to read the description of being whipped with a cane to my 6th graders when they complain about how strict we are on them so they can realize how good they actually have it. They're so aghast that they argue over who gets to read the whole book. Music to my ears.