B. Book Critique
Criteria # 2 How does the author’s characterization allow children to suspend disbelief? Do characters begin in a real world before they travel to the world of fantasy? Does a believable character accept a fanciful world, characters, or happenings? Does the author use an appropriate language consistent with the story?
This chapter book has a very unique format. Not only does the author tell the story in third person, but there are also pictures to help tell the story along the way as well. The book begins with a girl, Lulu, being someone that not many would want to be friends with. This young girl, is one whom students can relate to, whether it’s a sibling, friend, or even themselves. In the first chapter, we learn…show more content… The author gives details of the house, speaking about the cold winter breezes coming under the door and almost making the reader shiver. The two bedroom house is overcrowded, 4 grandparents that never get out of bed, Charlie’s parents, and Charlie that is left to sleep on a mattress on the floor. Again, the author describes this setting and the reader almost feels the discomfort that the Bucket family is feelings. The details of the chocolate factory are just as authentic. We can tell when Wonka’s dress is described that it is not happening in today's time. The top hat and coat tails are something that students struggle to understand, as well as the mink coat one of the other children’s parent is wearing. Each new room in the factory adds to the fantasy that the book is creating within the factory. Even before the children went into the factory, Grandpa Joe told stories of a Prince getting a palace built out of chocolate. The prince wanted a palace of pure chocolate, not to eat, but to live in. However, not soon after he moved in a hot day melted the palace with him taking a nap inside. This is almost a foreshadowing of the wonder and excitement that they will encounter inside the factory. All these factors add to the plot and excitement of the action in the