The Minpins

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The author makes up the names of different creatures that might live in The Forest of Sin. Can you make up a name for a new creature? What does it look like? What happens to it? Draw a map of The Forest of Sin, including the different places, people and creatures mentioned in the story. Little Billy’s mother was always telling him exactly what he was allowed to do and what he was not allowed to do’. Make a list of things that you are / aren’t allowed to do. Can you think of reasons why you aren’t allowed to do certain things (see Resources below)? Little Billy was awfully tired of being good’. Write a new story with this as the first line. What happens next? When Little Billy first enters The Forest of Sin he can hear absolute silence. Can you find a place where there is absolute silence? What things make sounds? How are they made? How are sounds measured? What is the loudest / quietest sound that you can make?

Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter pilot, chocolate historian and medical inventor. His first moment of inspiration came when he was at boarding school, when a local chocolate factory invited pupils to trial new chocolate bars - 35 years later, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was published. The Minpins wear clothes that are ‘the sort of thing people wore two or three hundred years ago’. Find out about clothing and fashion from different periods in history. Entering The Forest of Sin is ‘like being among the dead men in an enormous empty green cathedral’. Can you think of similes to describe different places?? (see Resources below) I read it for the first time in first grade. I loved it. I'm fairly certain I read it multiple times between first and third grade. The story is great and the pictures are stunning. Alas, I changed schools in third grade, and then changed again in fifth, and the title of the book was lost. I remembered the story but not what it was called.The Enormous Crocodile; Fantastic Mr Fox; The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me; The Magic finger; The Twits; The BFP; Boy: Tales of Childhood; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator; The Complete Adventures of Charlie and Mr Willy Wonka; Danny the Champion of the World; George's Marvellous Medicine; Going Solo; James and the Giant Peach; Matilda; The Witches; Dirty Beasts; The Minpins; Revolting Rhymes Look at the illustration of Little Billy first entering The Forest of Sin. Think of synonyms to describe the size of the trees and words to describe Little Billy.

Little Billy goes out through the garden gate in a ‘jiffy’. How long is this? Can you think of other ways of describe different periods of time? Which ones are the shortest / longest? He was supposedly very angry with the ending of the 1990 film adaptation of The Witches because the film's ending was very different to the book's ending. Apparently two endings were shot for the film - one which was the same as the book and another which was different - but the director chose to use the changed ending. 3. The peach was originally a cherry The Roald Dahl Story Company protects and grows the cultural value of Roald Dahl stories with their unique breadth of characters and worlds. With 300 million books sold, and one new book sold every 2.5 seconds, the Roald Dahl brand continues to grow in popularity globally, attracting new audiences with innovative developments in book, theatre, entertainment and beyond. The story was not exactly what I expected, that's why I didn't shelve it as one of my favorites, but it was close! I really liked how Dahl suggested other mysteries throughout the story, letting us imagine ourselves the other worlds existing. The illustrations of the Minpins in the trees are really cute, with a lot of details, and the descriptions of the forest are beautifully written. I felt like I was in there with Billy, escaping the house and entering this magical world. They soon warn Little Billy of the fearsome, galloping Gruncher, who has grunched thousands of Minpins. And it will gobble up Little Billy too - uness he can find a way to defeat the hungry beast, once and for all...

Use drama activities (e.g. Conscience corridor) to discuss whether Little Billy should go into The Forest of Sin and how he feels about it.