Roald Dahl

Sometimes, reading to your children can be more educational for you than it is for them. In fact, I'd venture to say that's almost always the case. My son and I just finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl's classic and ridiculously sadistic take on the rottenness of 20th Century childrearing and entertainment.

My kid loved it. Nothing better than a nasty greedy kid getting sucked up a big pipe, unless it's a nasty whiny little brat getting thrown down a garbage chute by Oompa-Loopas.

Now we've moved on to the sequel - Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - which is an enormously subversive, almost trippy take on just about everything else Dahl hated about the 20th Century.