The Roald Dahl Funny Prize

September 25, 2008
Roald Dahl Day Children What a wonderful idea! A new prize has been created in Roald Dahl’s name to honor the best funny books for children.

Founded by the Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen, the Roald Dahl Funny prize honours the funniest children’s authors. Two prizes will be awarded — one for the funniest book for children six and under, and one for the funniest book for children seven to fourteen.

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize aims to boost the profile of humorous books as part of Rosen’s campaign to put the fun back into children’s reading. It hopes to promote laughter and humour in children’s books and encourage families to read together and discover the pleasure of humorous books. This in turn will reinforce the message that reading together promotes family togetherness..

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize also aims to reward those authors and artists who use humour in their stories, poetry and fiction.

A shortlist of six books in each category was announced on 8 September to tie in with the third Roald Dahl Day on 13 September. The winners will be announced in November 2008.

Find out more about the shortlisted books and the award from the official Roald Dahl Funny Prize website or about Roald Dahl from his website.

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Posted by janning

13 September is Roald Dahl Day

September 5, 2008
Roald Dahl Day logo Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was one of the world’s best loved authors and storytellers and even to this day his work has remained popular with children.
13 September is officially Roald Dahl Day and it is celebrated across the world. It’s a wonderful opportunity to hold events, read Roald Dahl stories and do online activites to promote the pleasure of reading as well as have fun.

To help you get started with planning your own Roald Dahl party, here are some ideas:

  • Wear something yellow – it was Dahl’s favourite colour and wear one of them backwards. Or come in a costume from a character in his books and have a parade through the school.
  • Have storytelling sessions and read Dahl stories. His books are for all ages and great fun to read aloud.
  • Show a film adaptation of one of his books, like Charlie and the chocolate factory
  • Have a tea party with lots of scrumdiddllyumptious food like Mrs Twit’s eyeball cakes, Hot Choc Swudge Drinks or Wormy Spaghetti.
  • Ask children to keep a little notebook and write lists of things for example their 5 most favourite food or 5 things they would like to do now. They could also write revolting rhymes, short jokes and riddles in it. The children can then tell a funny joke, riddle or read out their lists to their friends.
  • Make up an Oompa Loompa dance and get everyone to join in.
  • Have Roald Dahl quizzes and competitions and give away prizes of Willy Wonka chocolate and all kinds of Dahl-inspired sweets.

For more ideas and other activities go to the official Roald Dahl website. On this page you will find all you need to help organise your own Wondercrump Roald Dahl Day event or party on September 13. And at the end you can also download a special Roald Dahl Challenge certificate and send in your photographs of your celebrations of this special day.

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Posted by scooke