Roald Dahl
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Cover Story
The illustration on the cover of this issue of Books for Keeps shows the arrival of King Sahure's funeral procession at the pyramid at Abusir around 2473 BC. Reconstructed from archaeological evidence, this illustration by David Salariya and Shirley Willis is taken from Ancient Egypt by Rosalie and Antony E. David, published by Kingfisher in the History as Evidence series (0 86272 091 5, £3.95). We are grateful to Kingfisher for help in using this illustration. (See Information Please, pages 20-21)
Roald Dahl
A book to be read retrospectively, for linguistically much of it is beyond those children who are obsessive readers of Dalh's children's books. Consequently there was some disappointment as young readers spotted the name of their favourite author writ large on the cover. Put into the right hands there was some interest, especially in the origins of ideas for Dahl's stories. It is an interesting book, tracing Dahl's life from child in Wales to successful author in the inventing shed in the back garden. It is however difficult to place, too sketchy for anyone genuinely concerned with biography and moving too fast for a child who might like to ask more questions about a particular book or character. As a teacher I was most interested in the section which specifically answered children's questions and which discussed how children ought to be their own best critics of what they read.