Roald Dahl

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vmbo g, t, havo
• Leerjaar 3

Lesson goals

In this lesson you:

• Learn more about Roald Dahl (Life and stories)

Which of Roald Dahl's books do you know?

Introduction

Roald Dahl is one of the greatest storytellers the world has ever known. He’s sold well over 200 million books and you might also know stories like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG and Matilda, from the film versions. Roald Dahl had a way of telling stories that makes them fun and easy to read. This, according to Roald himself, is because he found it very easy to remember what it was like to be a child.

Which of these stories wasn't written by Roald Dahl?

1. The BFG
2. Boy
3. Charlotte's web
4. Matilda

His life

Roald was born in Llandaff in Wales on 13 September 1916. 

His parents were both from Norway but they moved to the 

UK before he was born. He went to several different boarding schools, living away from his parents for most of the year. Once, to play a trick on the owner of a sweet shop, he put a dead mouse in one of the jars of sweets! As punishment for that, he was caned (hit with a stick) at school. In fact, Roald hated violence and cruel behaviour, and in many of his stories the main characters are treated cruelly by their family, carers or teachers. However, they always come out on top.

Roald was born in ___ on
September 13th 1916.

1. Wales
2. England
3. the United States
4. Norway

In many of his stories, the characters are treated ___ by other people, but they win in the end.

1. kindly
2. cruelly
3. fairly
4. badly

Roald hated ... and cruel behaviour.

1. swearing
2. rude
3. stupid
4. violence

Roald’s dream was to go to exciting foreign places, and he got the chance when he got a job with the Shell Company supplying oil in East Africa. When the Second World War broke out, he became a fighter pilot and he almost died when he crashed his plane in the desert. Although he flew again after that, he soon became too ill to continue and was sent home and given a new job in the British Embassy in Washington DC. There, he started writing speeches and war stories, and his first pieces of writing were published by Walt Disney.

During the Second World War, Roald ___.

1. flew fighter planes
2. wrote novels
3. worked for the Shell company
4. worked at the American Embassy

In which American city did
Roald Dahl get a new job?

In 1952, Dahl met the actress Patricia Neal and fell in love with her. They married the following year and returned to England to live at Gypsy house in Buckinghamshire. He lived here for the rest of his life.

Dahl and his wife had five children - Olivia, Tessa, Theo, Ophelia and Lucy. Between 1960-65 many tragic things happened to the family. Baby Theo was brain-damaged in a traffic accident, Olivia died from disease and Patricia suffered from a stroke. Finally, in 1990 Roald Dahl died at the age of 74. After his death, his books became even more popular, and to this day still are.

Fun Facts

• Roald Dahl was really tall. He was about 198 cm!
  
• Dahl loved eating chocolate.
• The anniversary of Roald Dahl’s birthday on 13th September                              is celebrated in schools and libraries all over the world as Roald Dahl Day.
• He was buried in Great Missenden with some items that he treasured, including chocolates and HB pencils.
• The grandmother character in The Witches is based on Roald Dahl’s mother, Sofie.

1. Roald Dahl could ... a story in a fun and interesting way.

2. To ... a trick on the owner of a sweet shop, he put a dead mouse in one of the jars of sweets!

3. Roald was happy to ... a job in East Africa.

4. Roald Dahl ... eating chocolate.

5. Why not ... a go at reading one of his books?

6. ... the official Roald Dahl website.

check out

get

tell

play

have

Loves

Well done! Did you find the texts and questions difficult or easy?

Everything was pretty hard!

Some texts and questions were hard and some were easy.

Everything was easy for me.