Last week, we were working on Great Authors presentation. We had to introduce our author to the audience. Although, we should follow a defined structure, each group was able to introduce his own author in a really personal way. There were customs, videos, music, books, etc., that were associated with them. Definitively, the whole group gave really good and original ideas that could be useful to develop future activities.
In any case, it could be possible to deal with some improvements. On the one hand, I would have like to know and to present authors in a closer way. For instance, It would be fantastic to talk about them in a reading circle. On the other hand, time was too short, so we could just talk about general ideas.
Due to these facts, I consider interesting to add some ideas about the author (Roald Dahl) that I was investigating with my partners Carmen Rojo and Loli Casco.
It was great to know about the considerable contribution that he made to children’s literature. Even nowadays, his legacy persists in an active and collaborative way. This is possible thanks to Roald Dahl Museum that works really hard to make possible that children can be closed and engaged to Roald Dahl’s life and books through many different, creative and active activities that are celebrated in the Museum. According to the Official Website, the museum presents three main galleries:
- Boy gallery. It is about Roald Dahl’s childhood, his love of chocolate and his schoolboy pranks (children’s jokes).
- Solo gallery. It is related to his journey to Africa. Visitors can appreciate how Roald Dahl’s real-life adventures led him to become a writer. They can experience the atmosphere of Roald Dahl’s original Writing Hut (small and isolated house, a kind of shelter).
- The story centre. This is the Museum’s creative hub where the displays will inspire visitors own writing and story-making. They can listen to top tips from their favorite authors, make a stop-frame animation, sit in a replica of Roald Dahl’s writing chair.
Considering that it is difficult to visit the museum, it is interesting to have a look to the museum galleries through the Virtual Museum Tour.
I would like to end up this post with an inspiring quote of this exceptional author:
“You must be a perfectionist. That means you must never be satisfied with what you have written until you have rewritten it again and again, making it as good as you possibly can”.
First image: Roald Dahl’s writing hut
Second image: Replica of Roald Dahl´s writing hut
Third image: Replica of Roald Dahl’s writing chair
First image from http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/14902536
Second and third images from http://www.roalddahl.com/
Hello Alicia!! First of all, congratulations! In my opinion your presentation was one of the bests, maybe I´m not being objective cause Roald Dhal is one of my favorite authors, but still, I think you did I really good research and explanation of the author´s life and works.
As I said before, this is one of my favorite authors I have read plenty of his books. When I was 13 more or less I was in a reading club and we read two books of him. I have to say that at the beginning I didn’t like it, but when we were sharing our opinions, one person realized that this author could get the best from a sad story and I thought that this could be apply to everything not just books. I think this is something we can learn from his books, no matter how hard or complicated is something in your life; you can overcome it and get a good experience from it. Maybe this is not the aim of the author but this is the nice thing about literature, you can interpret t as you want.
Finally I wanted to say thank you very much for sharing this additional information with us, at least for me is very interesting and I’m really glad to know more about this amazing author.
Hi Elena!
In the name of my group, thank you very much for your post. I am really glad about you enjoyed the presentation. Although, I have not read any of the books of this author, I know some of the film adaptations and I think that it is amazing the atmosphere that he was able to create to transmit his ideas and values about the human being. In relation with this, I have to confess that I love the following thought of your comment:
“This author could get the best from a sad story and I thought that this could be apply to everything not just books”.
I think that this idea is the best way to summarize Roald Dahl’s literature. Besides, I totally agree with you about the author’s aim that you describe after that.
It impressed me a lot that you were in a reading club. Because of that, I suppose that you really love reading! Although, I have never been in a reading club, I think that it should be great to have the opportunity of sharing ideas and thoughts about books and authors. It would be nice you talked us about these kind of expereriences.