But children are hard to come by, so he comes up with a cunning secret plan and some tricks to get at the food he adores.

The Enormous Crocodile is hungry and wants to eat his favourite snack, children. This isn’t a chapter book but just one long tale.

In 1978 he published his eighth children’s book (he had also published books for adults as well before this), this was called The Enormous Crocodile. He became such a well-known and well-loved author with his dark and humorous stories that every year, since 13 September 2006 (his birthday), he has had his own day to celebrate his work and the characters he created Roald Day Day. And for older readers that remember reading his books as kids, he also wrote the film storyline for the fifth James Bond movie You Only Live Twice! He has even been credited with inventing more than 500 new words including Oompa-Loompas and scrumdiddlyumptious from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and snozzcumbers and frobscottle from the BFG. At boarding school, Cadbury’s used send in chocolate bars for the kids to taste-test, and he used to dream that he would invent a new chocolate bar and win praise from Mr Cadbury – this inspired Charlie and the Charlie Factory. His books were inspired by the people and things around him. His books have now sold in excess of 250 copies worldwide.ĭahl wrote most of his books in his garden shed from his wingback armchair, using HB pencils and yellow legal notebooks. Since then, he went on to publish 49 books, 21 of them being children’s fiction and even 3 poetry books for children. This first book was called The Gremlins, inspired by his time as a pilot, and this author was Roald Dahl. Then in 1943 an author published his first children’s book in a style that was completely different, a tale that I remember from my own childhood as a film, a dark twisted tale that was a little bit scary and bizarre but one that children adored. “I’m going to fill my hungry empty tummy with something yummy, yummy, yummy!”Ĭhildren’s books are usually all fluffy and bright, with tales of happiness and wonder.

The enormous crocodile by roald dahl