Review by Booklist Review
Released eight years after the iconic original and one year following the film adaptation Dahl's madcap sequel picks up precisely where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory left off: a thousand feet up and cruising nicely. Yet the Buckets' joyride in the Great Glass Elevator quickly devolves from marvel into mayhem when Wonka launches the lift into outer space. The eight unlikely astronauts and their bed not only enter orbit, but into some serious skirmishes with everyone from the President of the United States, to Lancelot R. Gilligrass, to a legion of shape-shifting aliens, to the Vermicious Knids of planet Vermes. After our heroes rescue 136 souls from a cruel, Knid-related fate, the plot inevitably traipses back to the Chocolate Factory. There, Wonka takes his latest innovations, the youth-inducing Wonka-Vite and its counter, Vita-Wonk, for a whirl. As rollicking as it is ridiculous, Dahl's narrative, peppered with cautionary jingles (So now, before it is too late / Take heed of Goldie's dreadful fate), preposterous jargon (Bungo buni / dafu duni), outlandish recipes (Vita-Wonk's requires the back teeth of a 97-year old grimalkin), and unparalleled banter and bolstered by Blake's beloved pen-and-ink doodles is sidesplitting, strange, and boundlessly imaginative. Forgo the Wonka-Vite this one's ageless.--Shemroske, Briana Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-Charlie's adventures continue in Dahl's tongue-in-cheek, rambunctious sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Listeners will climb aboard a glass elevator with Charlie, his family, and Mr. Wonka and travel into outer space where they visit a space hotel, escape the Vermicious Knids, and save the world. It is hard to stop laughing at Dahl's clever puns and hilarious situations delivered by award-winning actor Douglas Hodge whose talent is reminscent of Jim Dale's extraordinary narration of the "Harry Potter" series. While his rapid pace takes getting used to, his timing and incredible range of voices bring this favorite childhood classic to life.-Terri Norstrom, Cary Area Library, IL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
