Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

We read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory aloud to our 6- and 8-year-old kids, then quickly started this one because they liked that one so much. Bad idea! This book is not suitable for the same age range. Everyone ends up fine in the Chocolate Factory, but not the case here. I stopped when the chapter ahead included the entire world (through TV and radio) watching and listening to the screams of a space crew getting murdered by aliens who are also hunting Charlie and his family. Before that, peril was already higher than I was comfortable with and the characters didn’t have much charm. It seemed like he was banking on people liking Willy Wonka, Charlie, and his family enough from the first book that them being dull/useless in the second wouldn’t matter.

Great book but some intense and other slow areas where 6+ is best

We read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory aloud to our 6- and 8-year-old kids, then quickly started this one because they liked that one so much. Bad idea! This book is not suitable for the same age range. Everyone ends up fine in the Chocolate Factory, but not the case here. I stopped when the chapter ahead included the entire world (through TV and radio) watching and listening to the screams of a space crew getting murdered by aliens who are also hunting Charlie and his family. Before that, peril was already higher than I was comfortable with and the characters didn’t have much charm. It seemed like he was banking on people liking Willy Wonka, Charlie, and his family enough from the first book that them being dull/useless in the second wouldn’t matter.