Tran, Meagan

WSS, P.1

5/14/09

Meagan Tran’s Book Talk

The title of this book is called Gift of Imagination: The Story of Roald Dahl.
The book was written by LeeAnne Gelletly. This book is a biography. Roald Dahl
was born on September 13, 1916, in Llandaff, Whales, to Norwegian parents.
Their names were Harald and Sofie Dahl. Roald was his mother’s only son. When
Dahl was only three years old, his sister, Astrie died. She was only seven years old.
A short while after Astri’s death, Harald Dahl died of pneumonia. Roald had a half
sister, Ellen, half brother, Louis, a sister, Astri, and a sister named, Ahfhild. When
Roald was older, he married an actress named Patricia Neal. They got married in
New York on July 2, 1953. Patricia and Roald had three girls and one son. Their
daughter’s names were Olivia Twenty, Chantel Sophia but renamed Tessa, and
Ophelia Magdalena. Their only son was named Theo Matthew Roald. But
unfortunately Olivia Twenty died of measles encephalitis. Roald Dahl and Patricia
divorced in 1983. Roald then married Felicity Crossland. Roald has wrote many
books such as The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, The Twits,
George’s Marvelous Medicine, The BFG, Matilda, Going Solo, James and the Giant
Peach and much much more. Roald later on was diagnosed with rare blood
disorder called myelodysplastic anemia, a form of leukemia. He became so ill that
he had to go to the hospital. Eleven days after he was brought to the hospital, he
died. He died on November 23, 1990 at the hospital. Roald Dahl was seventy four
years old. He was buried in the cemetery at the hilltop parish church of St. Peter
and St. Paul, in Great Missenden. Some unique things about Roald were that he
joined the Royal Air Force at a time in his life. Another unique thing about him is
that he would usually get his ideas for books from his children.
A problem that he overcame in his lifetime was that one of his sisters died when
Roald was just a little boy. Some character traits that I admire about Roald are
that he is creative, giving, and hard working. A message he would probably give us
today is to always follow your dream. Another good title for this book would be
The Life of Roald Dahl. I think that Roald Dahl was a very creative person and
authors should follow his techniques of writing books.

 Go to page 12- This is Roald when he was eight months old.

 Go to page 20- This is a picture of Roald and his siblings. Roald was
Roald is the last one wearing the black coat.
 Go to page 97- This is Roald’s hut where he wrote some of his books
and stories.
 Go to page 131- And this is a picture of Roald Dahl when he was close
to dying.
 Are there any questions? ☺♥♪♫