Sofia is an 8-year-old brilliant reader who aspires to be a book reviewer. On select Saturdays, Sofia will share her favorite books with kids! She is one of the most well-read elementary schoolers that we know, so she is highly qualified for this role!

Dear readers,

I have again decided to change things up a bit. This time I will be recommending several books by the same author. His name is Roald Dahl. I haven’t read many of his books, but the ones that I have read were truly amazing. They make great read-alouds, too. I recommend the books that I am covering in this review for about ages 7-12.

The first time I heard about this author’s creations was when my first grade teacher read my class Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, probably Roald Dahl’s most famous book. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is about a poor boy named Charlie Bucket who walks past Willy Wonka’s

factory on his way to school. Charlie always stops and sniffs the amazing smells of Wonka’s factory for he only gets one candy bar per year and that is on his birthday. That singular bar he gets on his birthday, he saves by nibbling little by little off each day. When Willy Wonka announces in the newspaper that five, only five, of his Wonka bars have a golden ticket inside that will get five lucky kids into the factory, everybody goes crazy about buying Wonka bars. It seems unlikely for Charlie to get the Golden Ticket but who knows, maybe he will be lucky…

I was very excited when my friend visited and gave me a collection of most of Roald Dahl’s children’s books. She even recommended Matilda which is now one of my favorite books by him. Matilda is about a girl named Matilda who loves to read and is super smart. Matilda’s parents are mean and force her to watch television when she would rather be reading a book, so she puts up a secret policy of her own… When Matilda is finally old enough to go to school she meets her nice teacher Miss Honey and her terrible principal Miss Trunchbull. Matilda is the smartest kid in her class because she reads so many books. Miss Honey is fascinated by Matilda’s knowledge and likes that she does not brag about it.

This book was so good I decided to read it to my four year old sister. Introducing Fantastic Mr Fox! Fantastic Mr Fox is about a father fox and his family. When it gets dark the father fox always carefully slips out of his home to steal some food from three mean farmers. Their names are Bean, Bunce and Boggis and they all run their own type of farm. They are very mean and know that he is stealing their stuff and are furious about it. They make plans to catch him, but none of them have worked so far. Can they do it or will Mr Fox outfox them?

The book that I am about to present to you is one that I read with my friend for a sort of book club. Presenting The Witches! The Witches is about a boy who has a grandma who tells stories about witches. She tells him always to be on the lookout for them because they can kill you and eat you. She tells him a few things that witches always have. First, a real witch is certain to have gloves. Second, a real witch is always bald but wears a wig that usually itches. Third, a real witch has slightly bigger nostrils. Fourth, a real witch has different eyes than normal people because where we have a black dot in the middle of our eye theirs change color all the time. There are more ways to identify a witch, but you need to read the book to find out. The grandma says that there is a Grand High Witch which is basically the queen of all witches. She is the meanest of all the witches and all of the witches are petrified of her. When the boy comes out to climb a tree one time, a strange lady suddenly appears under the tree and tells him to come down. The boy suddenly sees she has all the characteristics of a witch and starts to climb higher. Will the witch get him or will he escape?

This book must be popular among my teachers because after I read it my teacher read it, too. A perfectly magical book called The Magic Finger! The Magic Finger is about a girl who has a finger that shoots some sort of magic when someone makes her mad. Her neighbors have a habit of hunting and the girl doesn’t like them doing it. She thinks that it doesn’t seem right to kill animals just for the fun of it. The girl can’t help it, she puts the magic finger on them all, even the wife that does not hunt. Sorry, but you have to read the book to find out what happens to them.

In case it is not obvious why I like these books, it is because Roald Dahl is a great storyteller and his books are bursting with fantasy and crazy ideas. If you want to learn about the author, I highly recommend a book called Who was Roald Dahl? by True Kelly.

**Thank you, Sofia, for your continued brilliance. You inspire us!**