Web site of the Month: The Roald Dahl Museum
By Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 11/1/2004
Though the Roald Dahl Museum and Storytelling Centre won't open until June 2005, you can visit its new Web site for a unique look at the life and work of the popular children's author. The Museum, located in the English village of Buckinghamshire, where Dahl lived and wrote many of his beloved books, is the repository of the author's archive. Considered one of the most complete literary archives in the world, the collection contains the Ideas Books, where many of his stories began, and quirky ephemera from Dahl's garden writing hut.
Charlie, James, and the Twits: The site's searchable archive database offers a fascinating look at the creative process. An early draft of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, for example, reveals Dahl's methodical crafting and recrafting of the story, down to such plot details as character names. The Oompa Loompas, we learn from a 1961 draft, started out as the "Whipple-Scrumpets." "Children hate redrafting creative writing work and don't realize that it's something that even authors have to do," Katy Sullivan, the Museum's education officer, told the Times Educational Supplement. "The Web site can be used to show this development."
