(Image Credit: Penguin Books)
Little Billy keeps forlornly looking out his window at the woods beyond, day after day after day. The vast expanse of nature beckons in a tantalizing manner. However, Little Billy faces one formidable roadblock. His stern mother. Terming the woods ‘The Forest of Sin’, Billy’s mother scared the living daylights out of him by reminding him at every opportunity that while many have ventured into the Forest of Sin, none have managed to come out. Teeming with terrifying creatures with more terrifying names such as The Whangdoodles, Hornswogglers, Snozzwanglers, and the Vermicious Knids, unsuspecting and indiscreet adventurers are seemingly gobbled up by these horrific beings in one gargantuan gulp. However, temptation overcomes Little Billy and one fine day he wriggles himself out the window and makes his way into the Forest of Sin. But little does Little Billy know what the deep, dark and dense forest has in store for him.
Roald Dahl has been universally acknowledged to be one of the world’s foremost story tellers. It is not at all hard to decipher why. “Billy and the Minpins” is an incredible journey that cannot be straitjacketed as being the prerogative of any particular genre. Even though classified and categorised as a story for children, Little Billy’s unexpected escapades is an edge of the seat roller coaster that will hold not just every child but also his or her parents in equal fervour! A one sitting read, “Billy and the Minpins” is not just a wonderfully rousing read aloud but also a perfect platform to introduce to a young mind, the work of an absolute master of his craft. Roald Dahl just lets his imagination rip and run rampant as Billy negotiates seemingly insurmountable odds and encounters unbelievable spectacles. Anyone who can come with terminologies such as a “red hot Smoke Belching Gruncher” and “Bloodsuckling Toothpluckling Stonechuckling Splitter” has to possess a riotously churning mind full of fantasies and fairy tales!
“Billy and the Minpins” would have been that much duller if it was to be deprived of the mesmerizing illustrations of Quentin Blake. The perpetual combination of Dahl and Blake has been providing undiluted and unbridled joy to children and adults alike over many years and continues to do so. These two partners in crime have done yeoman service to the literary world!
“Billy and the Minpins” – A loving, laughing and lasting ride that will leave every reader gasping for more!
