Press Release - Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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First Lady Patricia Blagojevich announces October selection for Children's Reading Club as The Witches
CHICAGO - First Lady Patricia Blagojevich today announced October's selection for her Children's Reading Club - The Witches by Roald Dahl. In this month's selection meet a hero, a wise old grandmother, and the most gruesome, grotesque gang of witches imaginable!
"Reading with your children is one of the best ways to spend quality time with them while helping them develop critical skills like building a good vocabulary and active listening," said the First Lady. "Reading with my daughters is one of my favorite things to do, and I hope that more parents can take part in reading to and with their own children."
Dahl based the character of the grandmother in The Witches on his mother - it was his tribute to her. His mother, Sofie, was left to raise two stepchildren and her own four children. Dahl was her only son. He remembered his mother as "a rock, a real rock, always on your side whatever you'd done. It gave me the most tremendous feeling of security."
"Roald Dahl is without question the most successful children's writer in the world," wrote Brian Appleyard in "The Independent" in 1990. He first became interested in writing children's books by creating bedtime stories for his daughters Olivia and Tessa. This was how James and the Giant Peach came into being. The book was published in America in 1961 and the UK in 1967. Other famous children's books of Dahl include Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda to name a few. He died on November 23, 1990 at the age of 74.
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