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I enjoyed my reading of BILLY AND THE MINPINS by Roald Dahl, from publishers Puffin and Penguin Random House, but my reaction to this new-to-me book from an old-favorite-author is complex!

Opening Quote: Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. p98

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. The illustrations are wonderful as I remember them from childhood, thanks to Quentin Blake. Pages 72 and 73 have my favorite picture in this book!

2. The monster, huge and loud and for a good portion of the first half, concealed in its own exhaled smoke. It a creepy creature, but also a good metaphors for air pollution or threats to the planet's health in general.

3. This story teaches valuable lessons, such as cooperation with nature p50, contributing to the social good p52, and "sometimes mysteries are more intriguing than explanations" p92.

4. I feel in certain scenes a strong GULLIVER'S TRAVELS vibe. Love this wonderful and uncanny connection.

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. Some familiar images here. The forest of sin, where Little Jonny goes after growing bored with "being good," and listening to the devil whispering in his ear, decides to disobey "good boy rules" and climb out his bedroom window. This reminds me of the imagery of Eve's  fall in the garden of Eden. Also, the giant tree with branches growing low to the ground, and crown disappeared into the blue sky, resembles a very famous beanstalk.

2. The writing in the whole first third of the book is shockingly mediocre. Vague descriptions. Passive sentences. "Little Billy sat staring at this extraordinary thing," p31. Every bit of that sentence is incongruous, but also, "this extraordinary thing" is anything but a description of an extraordinary thing. I was pleased to discover things improved later in the book.

3. These books were all written a long time ago, and they're mostly lovely. But some old lessons holdover, such as on p43 when Little Billy compliments the Minpins' homes by being self-effacing about his own home. "They're all absolutely marvelous," he said. "They're much nicer than our rooms at home."

4. Sometimes the book's moral ideals contradict themselves. For example, we have the lessons I write about in Things I Love, specifically cooperation with nature p50, and contributing to the social good p52. But in direct opposition to these, just pages earlier, we have the leader of the Minpins, Don Mini, telling Little Billy that the Minpins "own the forest." I don't know if the word "own" quite had the force in 1991 that it does now, but for me it brought up a pile of questions the story never addresses.

Closing quote: Oh, it was a wondrous secret life that Little Billy lived up there in the sky at night  on Swan's back! They flew in a magical world of silence, swooping and gliding over the dark world below where all the earthly people were fast asleep in their beds. p84

Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 of Gruncher's flames
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: Feb 02 '24
Format: Paperback, Roald Dahl reading challenge 1/16
Read this book if you like:
🏔 adventures
🗡 hero story
👦 middle grade fiction
🦄 magical realism
🤝 friendship stories