While walking home, I found this book on the ground in front of a recycling bin. It looked absolutely miserable, soaked wet from the previous night’s rain. I picked it up and took a photo, but it looked even worse in sunlight.
Wikipedia says Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972) is the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964). The book “was deemed significantly inferior to its predecessor; it has never been adapted for a visual medium (unlike Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which has been adapted several times)”.
Ouch.
The most interesting part of this book, based on the plot, is the rejuvenation pills “Wonka-Vite” and its opposite “Vita-Wonk”. While an overdose of “Wonka-Vite” reduces Charlie’s grandparents George and Josephine to babies, the other grandparent Georgina suffers a worse fate and vanishes, “having become -2 years old”. As a result, Wonka gives Georgina a spray of “Vita-Wonk” and she ends up becoming 358 years old! Then Wonka has to fix all three of them again…
Only kids can come up with this sort of crazy yet fun idea, I reckon. Imagine, what can you do if you really don’t like your grandparents…
Voices under the Sun 陽光下的聲音 