A set of seven incredible stories, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More is one of Roald Dahl’s books for older readers. Some of the stories are very powerful, some are terrifying fantasies. One of them is about a boy who can talk to animals, another is about a gambling man who can see without his eyes, and so on! Once I started reading I couldn’t get my head up from it!
It does include stories which were slightly harrowing and made me think a lot about bullying. One of them includes a poor child being mercilessly bullied by two horrible 15-year-olds who do truly awful things to him including killing a swan, cutting of its wings and tying them on to the little boy! Thankfully he does end up managing to escape, and some of the other stories are very fun.
I didn’t really like the repetitive bits in the book because it repeats lots of sentences and names but I liked it because it has similar feelings to Roald Dahl’s children’s books but the characters are more grown up.
I think this book is nothing like his other books, and it would be best for 11 or 12 year olds.
-
Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
