Hello AQUILAnauts
and welcome to our
frumptious, rambunctious
Ro ald Da h l issue.
2
016 marks 100 years since the birth of Roald Dahl – the
world’s number one wordsmith and storyteller.* As a result,
this year will be packed with gloriumptious treats and surprises
celebrating the work of the great redunculous ribtickler himself!
Go to www.roalddahl.com/roalddahl100 to find out more, and
don’t forget to get ready for the world’s biggest Roald Dahl birthday
party on 13 September 2016 by visiting www.roalddahl.com/party
now and registering for your free Roald Dahl party pack, which is
full of quizzes, games and Roald Dahl decorations – everything you
would need to host your own splendiferous celebration.
What did Roald Dahl and King James I have in common?
They were both very tall, yes, and they both liked a joke.
They both owned a nice collection of cardigans,* but that’s
not really what I am getting at. The answer is that they both
wrote books about witches. The problem is – what with
him being the king and all – people took James I’s book
seriously, with catastrophic results. Aquila investigates the
witches of Pendle Hill. (P.S. We don’t really know if James I did have a
nice line in cardigans, he just looks the type.)
Tongues may be pretty revolting but they
are also very clever indeed. Harvey
explores the science of taste and makes
his very own lickable wallpaper!
That’s all fine and dandy, but why do we celebrate the life and the
work of Roald Dahl? What was so special about him?
Well, just pause for a second to imagine all the characters we would
never have met if it weren’t for the imagination of Roald Dahl.
We’d never have heard of Miss Agatha Trunchbull, the tyrannical
headmistress of Crunchem Hall; Willy Wonka, the contrary
confectionery genius who created the world’s most extraordinary
sweets; Mr Twit, who eats pie made from birds that he catches
using Hugtight glue, or Mrs Twit, who used to be pretty but had so
many ugly thoughts over the years that they have made her
ugly too.
Think of the incredible words he has given us.
Without the genius of Roald Dahl:
An area of boggy ground could never be called a sogmire.
Award-winning Rooftoppers author,
Katherine Rundell, introduces us to a
few of her favourite orphans in literature.
If we came across a very bad mess we could not say it had been
splitzwiggled.
If a mixture were both thick and springy, we could not describe it
as splongy.
And that’s just a few of the Ss!
Roald Dahl loved playing with words and sounds, and so do we.
Have you ever noticed that certain groups of letters and sounds can
make you feel a particular way? Words that start with hard sounds
like cr- and gr- can make us feel frightened, like a fierce and
enormous giant is about to gobble us up. I don’t know about you,
but Sw- sounds make me think of little pink piglets wiggling their
tails, and words that end in ‘-ump’ never fail to make me chuckle.
Why do you think that is?
Next time you sit down to complete a piece of writing (creative
writing that is – not a tax return or anything), why not try to make
up a word to describe exactly how you are feeling at that moment.
Write and tell us how you get on and we’ll print the best made-up
words in the magazine.
Have a jumpsquifflingly jubilant June
and don’t forget to meet us back here
in July for an epic excursion to Ancient
Egypt, in our Summer double issue!
* William Shakespeare is also very good, of course.
Have you made up your mind? Is
hunting a cruel and bloodthirsty
pursuit, or a sad but necessary aspect
of life in the countryside? Can it be
both? Check out our answers, in the
second part of Just Think.
Are two heads better than one? If you’re a
professional perfume sniffer and hat model then, yes,
obviously. That goes without saying, but what if
you’re a mathematician? Calculata gets down to some
serious maths to find the best method for guessing
the number of jellybeans in a jar.