Literacy is everywhere. We can learn from everywhere. Even though you’re an adult or children, books can teach you literacy, as well as entertain you as a reader.
The British author named Roald Dahl published at least 35 books. One of his books, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, was the continuation of the unforgettable Charlie and Chocolate Factory.
The book starts with the conclusion of what’s happening to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the previous book simultaneously, introduced characters. The whole family came into the Great Glass Elevator for Charlie’s celebration to become the new ownership of the Chocolate Factory. Grandpa Joe is one of the grandparents, he is willing taking part of Charlie and Willy Wonka. adventure. The glass elevator has the special function that nothing can go through it. Moreover, the Great Glass Elevator can bring everyone back into the Chocolate Factory. The adventure to get back into the Chocolate Factory, they have to go up very high until arriving the space. Unfortunately, Charlie’s grandma distracted him, and he did not pull the elevator back in time. This made the Great Glass Elevator get stuck in space, while they are in the space they noticed the Space Hotel “U.S.A” which later got attacked by the evil aliens, the Vermicious Knids. Wonka, Charlie, and Grandpa Joe collaborated to help those people, and finally, they saved the spaceship full of hotel employees commuting there. Again they also find strategies to get back into the Chocolate Factory. At the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka offered pills called Wonka-Vite which made the grandparents younger. Regrettably, the grandparents took too many pills and what happens?
Roald Dahl created strange and unusual words in this book. Some words do not exist in this world because he created them by himself. For example, Minusland, Gettysburg, cantankerous, snozzwangers, whangdoodles, dumpery, etc. These new words helped Roald Dahl to clearly express each character’s behavior especially with the phrases the characters spoke. Those funny words help people to have fun with reading and it is silly to pronounce those words.
The readers not only learning literacy but also learning life’s lessons. The person that have well-being behavior is rewarded, and unacceptable behavior is punished. Charlie is very kind, brave and friendly. Additionally, Charlie would always endure all the trials because of that Charlie inherited the Chocolate Factory upon Wonka’s retirement. Moreover, Grandpa Joe is a pleasing person and worked flexibly hard with his mission especially, when he helped Mr. Wonka to fight against aliens. This is why nothing dangerous occurs to these characters.
On the other hand, the other three grandparents of Charlie are disrespectful, annoying, bad-tempered, and nasty. They are unwilling to work or use energy. They always stay on their bed (never want to get out). Most of the time they always have negative thoughts and act too headstrong. This is why throughout the book they always face hazardous situations. For instance, all of them selfishly took pills called Wonka-Vite from Willy Wonka to reduce age. Unfortunately, because of their egocentric nature, two of the grandparents became a 1-year-old baby. Another grandparent was minus age which made her disappear from this world and send to the Minusland.
Roald Dahl not only intentionally teaches the readers life lessons, but teaches us through settings as well. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator include the Space Hotel “U.S.A” and the Great Glass Elevator. The author tried to explain to the readers that current technology is rapidly developing. Inside Space Hotel there was a swimming pool, fancy bedrooms, dining rooms, gymnasium, etc. Also, the Great Glass Elevator can be able to travel to the space, which currently there are inventions that make people can travel into the space safely.
The Great Glass Elevator serves two target audiences: there are adults and children. Roald Dahl used strange worlds throughout the book, including aliens as the characters, and adding politicians in the book. Additionally, he used different types of people: lazy people, coward people, genius people, and hard working people. In order to make this book convincing and entertaining he used funny phrases as well. For example, Willy Wonka expressed, “We have so much time and so little to do! No! Wait! Strike that! Reverse it!”. Personally, I recommend everyone to read Roald Dahl books because you can entertain yourself and learn life lessons at the same time!