Not ‘thick’, but ‘huge’: hundreds of changes in Roald Dahl children’s books for ‘offensive’ language | show

Roald Dahl children’s books have had hundreds of changes made by the English publisher Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company. Passages have also been added. In this way, the texts should be less offensive, writes the DailyTelegraph. Caspar Slok from the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now ‘huge’ instead of ‘fat’ and Mrs Griezel from the book De Griezels is no longer ‘ugly and beastly’, but only ‘beastly’.

So the (physical) descriptions of people have been looked at, but things from the books of the world-famous British writer have also been made gender neutral. For example, the Oompa Loompas from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are now ‘little people’ and not ‘little men’, reports the British newspaper.

Publisher Puffin hired special readers to pay attention to the sensitivities in the texts of Dahl’s children’s books. By rewriting the sensibilities, “everyone can continue to enjoy the books.” It resulted in hundreds of changes. Passages not written by Dahl were also added. According to the Roald Dahl Story Company, it is “not uncommon to reassess the language” in new printings and the changes are “minor and careful.”

For example, in the book The Witches there was a paragraph explaining that witches are bald and wear wigs. It has now been added that ‘there are also many other reasons why women may wear wigs and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that’. And in the book The Giant Peach, the ‘cloud men’ have been changed into ‘cloud people’.

The Roald Dahl Story Company states that in all changes made, the premise has been to preserve “the storyline, the characters, and the irreverence and sharp spirit of the original text.” According to The Guardian the changes were made in collaboration with Inclusive Minds, which is committed to inclusion and accessibility in children’s literature.

ttn-42