I would say most adults have a memory from their own childhood of enjoying at least one of Roald Dahl’s books.
I’ll admit to my own fond memories of a (perhaps unhealthy) obsession with Miss Honey as a child (IYKYK)…
In a lot of ways I think Roald Dahl helped many kids survive their childhoods. The combination of clever kids outsmarting the horrible adults was something to be in complete awe of as a child for sure.
When asking most adults for the best Roald Dahl books you’ll get three different answers (with a quote or memory attached). Matilda. The BFG, obviously. What do you mean, not The Twits?
All of them probably remembering a different childhood. So let me answer it for the child in front of you instead.
The quick answer. Matilda is the best one. Fantastic Mr Fox is the one to hand over first. George’s Marvellous Medicine is the funniest. And two of the fifteen we stock are worth holding back until they’ve read a few others (more on those at the end).
All of Roald Dahl sits with our funny books for 7 year olds, which tells you most of what you need to know about him.
Which Roald Dahl book should they read first?
Not the famous ones. That’s my one strong opinion here.
Charlie and Matilda are the two everyone reaches for, because they’re the two everyone remembers. They’re also the two longest. Handing a brand-new Dahl reader a book that thick is how you end up with a bookmark stuck on chapter four for a month.
Start short. Fantastic Mr Fox or George’s Marvellous Medicine can be finished in a couple of sittings, and both leave a child wanting the next one. That is a great gateway into the next longer ones.
(If your question is really “is my child old enough for Dahl at all”, that’s a different page. Our what age are Roald Dahl books for guide goes book by book.)
The best Roald Dahl books, ranked
1. Matilda
Matilda
The best of the lot. And I’ll say that with my whole heart.
Matilda is cleverer than everyone around her and nobody at home has noticed. Her parents ignore her, her brother is no help, and her headmistress (Miss Trunchbull) never misses a chance to punish her. The only person who sees her properly is her teacher, Miss Honey. Then Matilda discovers she can move things with her mind.
It’s the bookworm’s book. A small girl who reads her way out of a rotten situation, which is why it resonates with the child who’s already never without a book. It is a long one, so one for a confident solo reader, and glorious aloud well before that.
2. The BFG
The BFG
The one with the biggest heart, and the best words.
One night a giant carries Sophie off from her bed. Luckily it’s the Big Friendly one, far too nice and jumbly to eat her. Then she learns that the Bloodbottler and the other giants are off to England to swollomp some nice little chiddlers, and she decides they have to be stopped.
The invented language is the joy of it (jumbly, swollomp, chiddlers, all of it will enter your house permanently), and the friendship between Sophie and the BFG is the sweetest thing Dahl wrote. The child-eating giants are an idea rather than a scene, but a sensitive reader may want a grown-up nearby. Probably good for an 8 year old.
3. Fantastic Mr Fox
Fantastic Mr Fox
The starting book. Short, fast, and the fox outfoxes everybody.
Someone has been stealing from Boggis, Bunce and Bean (the three meanest farmers around), and they know exactly who. Alone they’d never catch Mr Fox. Together they’ve got him and his family surrounded. What they don’t know is that Mr Fox would rather die than surrender, and he’s got a plan.
If you only hand over one Dahl to a 6 year old, make it this. Chapters you can count on your fingers, and an epic ending.
4. George’s Marvellous Medicine
George’s Marvellous Medicine
The naughtiest, and the one that gets the loudest laughs.
George is home alone with Grandma, the most horrid, grizzly old grunion of a grandma ever. Her usual medicine clearly isn’t curing her grouchiness, so George brews her something stronger. He knows exactly what to put in it. Grandma gets the surprise of her life, and so does George when he sees what his mixture does.
Pure glee from start to finish. Some parents wince at how cheerfully Grandma gets what’s coming to her. Children do not wince. Good for 6 or read aloud earlier.
5. The Twits
The Twits
Two truly revolting people.
Mr and Mrs Twit are the smelliest, nastiest, ugliest people in the world. They hate everything except playing cruel tricks on each other, catching birds for Bird Pie, and making their caged monkeys (the Muggle-Wumps) stand on their heads all day. The Muggle-Wumps have had enough. They don’t just want out. They want revenge.
Disgusting rather than scary (the Bird Pies are the bit they’ll quote at you), and short enough to read in one go. It’s best at 7 or 8, when being horrible is the funniest thing in the world.
Which Roald Dahl book is the funniest?
George’s Marvellous Medicine, and it isn’t close. It’s the one where the laughing gets out of hand at bedtime.
The Twits is second, for a child who likes their jokes disgusting. And for a reader who already knows the fairy tales, Revolting Rhymes takes Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks, Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs and tells you what really happened. Much more gory, and in rhyme.
One honest note. The funniest Dahls are also the naughtiest Dahls. If you’d rather the laughs came without a grandma being medicated, Fantastic Mr Fox is funny in a cleverer, kinder way.
And the rest
Ten more, all worth their place, in roughly the order I’d hand them over.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would be in the top five in most houses, and I won’t argue. Five golden tickets, Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teavee, and Charlie Bucket up against the lot of them. Just don’t make it their first.
Danny the Champion of the World is a father-and-son story before it’s anything else. Danny is the youngest master car mechanic around, he and his dad live in a caravan, and then his dad’s hidden secret turns the pair of them into a team plotting against a wealthy landowner called Victor Hazell. For a child who likes a story more than a joke.
The Magic Finger is the shortest. The Greggs shoot animals and birds every Saturday morning, the girl who lives next door can’t stand it, and when she gets angry enough the Magic Finger comes out. A first Dahl for a 5 year old.
Esio Trot is the odd one out, a tiny love story. Mrs Silver asks her neighbour Mr Hoppy how to make her tortoise Alfie grow, and Mr Hoppy (who really loves her) suddenly knows how to win her heart. Read the title backwards for a clue.
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me is Billy’s story. He wants a sweet shop in the weird old wooden house down the road, but the Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company (a giraffe, a pelly and a monkey) got there first. Dirty Beasts is Revolting Rhymes for animals, Gocky-Wock the crocodile and Sting-A-Ling the scorpion included. And Spotty Powder and other Splendiferous Secrets is a box of Dahl facts with a lost chapter from Charlie inside, for the child who’s read everything else.
Then the two to hold back.
James and the Giant Peach does something awful to James’s parents on page one (a rhinoceros is involved) and then hands him to his aunts (Spiker and Sponge). After that it’s magic crystals, a peach as big as a house and a crew of giant insects rolling away on the adventure of their lives. Brilliant, but save it for a child who’s already a Dahl fan and won’t be put off by the start.
The Gremlins is the curiosity. Dahl’s wartime one, about Gus, a British fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain who looks out at his wing and sees a six-inch man with horns drilling a hole in it. It’s a war story, not a Dahl romp, and it sits best with a 9 year old who’s done the rest.
When they’ve genuinely finished him (it happens, usually around the third re-read of Matilda), our what to read after Roald Dahl list is the next stop. And if the child in question is already a David Walliams fan, I’ve ranked his books too in best David Walliams books.
Just so you know…
Little Reads stocks fifteen of Roald Dahl’s books, every one on this page included, inside a hand-picked library of 3,000+ books for children aged 5 to 11. A free account gives you 100+ free books. Full access is £7.99 a month after a 7-day free trial, and you can cancel anytime.
It’s a library, not a classroom, so it isn’t the app for phonics or learning to read. It’s for the child who’s already decided Matilda is a personal friend.