Roald Dahl Day

Today, the world celebrates one of the world's most well-known authors of children's books. It's none other than Roald Dahl's birthday today. Dahl was born on Sept 13, 1916 and wrote a number of books, which are still and will be appreciated by adults and children alike.

These are some of the popular children's books by Dahl. They are all old edition covers. I enjoy looking at first edition covers! It's like going back in history.






Anyway, here are some cool Roald Dahl facts which I found in Wikipedia:

• Roald was named after the polar explorer Roald Amundsen, a national hero in Norway.
  
  
• Dahl first attended The Cathedral School, Llandaff. At the age of eight, he and four of his friends were caned by the headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of sweets at the local sweet shop, which was owned by a "mean and loathsome" old woman called Mrs Pratchett (wife of blacksmith David Pratchett).
  
  
• Dahl was very tall, reaching 6'6" (1.98m) in adult life, and he was good at sports, being made captain of the school fives and squash teams, and also playing for the football team.
  
  
• In November 1939, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force. After a 600-mile car journey from Dar-es-Salaam to Nairobi, he was accepted for flight training with 20 other men, and was one of only three who survived the war, as the other 17 died in combat.
  
  
• His first children's book was The Gremlins, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore.
  
  
• He also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, usually with a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending.

Have fun celebrating Roald Dahl Day!