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hedyharper's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Alcohol
readingthroughthelists's review against another edition
3.0
The book is also extremely readable. Dahl breezes through moments of his childhood that were significant to him, mostly his school days. The takeaway seems to be generally that English boarding schools in the 1920s-30s were a terrible place--Dahl, at least, has no fond memories of them. And the lengthy descriptions of corporal punishment and the easily-exploited power imbalance between older and younger students are what push the book slightly out of the realm of a class read-a-aloud.
I, for one, wouldn’t want to read a chapter called “Fagging” to my middle school students, no matter what the context was at the time.
Graphic: Physical abuse
Moderate: Child abuse
ravenclawboi33's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, and Abandonment
Boarding school talked about, with all the child abuse that comes with itkingsteph's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Medical trauma and Car accident
Minor: Animal death, Child death, and Death of parent
acutefauna's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Child abuse
jesterbrooks's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Child abuse
Minor: Death
orchidd's review
3.25
Graphic: Child abuse and Physical abuse
n_t_sh_'s review against another edition
Moderate: Child abuse, Medical trauma, and Car accident
Minor: Child death and Death of parent
bookstorian's review against another edition
5.0
Just as the opening letter from Roald himself promised there are stories of sadness, horror and humour amongst the pages of his book which was written just like one of his children' stories. There was engaging tales on every page, from his family trips to Norway, the horrendous medical drama, the excerpts from his letters and accounts of his passion for photography.
The love for his home and his mother oozed into many a story and it is largely thanks to her that he has so many memories written in his own hand and shared with the world in his first autobiography. She truly seemed to be a strong and admirable woman. Some of the more difficult stories to hear were the ones about the cruetly Roald and his class mates experienced at the hands of his teachers. These experiences truly had a lasting impact on his life and it made me incredibly disappointed in the history of the education system.
If you enjoy memoirs, biographies and auto-biographies I highly recommend this read.
Moderate: Child abuse and Medical content
daisyroberds's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Medical trauma
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Child death