My Science School

The eccentric Willy Wonka, his chocolate factory and the Oompa-Loompas who works there are popular among kids. Willy Wonka was created by the famous author Roald Dahl for his novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1964. Willy Wonka also appears in its sequel titled Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator that came out in 1972.

Willy Wonka hides five Golden Tickets in his chocolates. The children who find these tickets will be rewarded with a lifetime supply of chocolates and also a tour of his factory. Each child can take an adult of their choice as well. Though it looks like a simple lucky draw, Willy Wonka was actually selecting five kids to test their moral values. The children are totally unaware of this competition though.

As the tour of the factory progresses, four children get eliminated. A kid named Charlie Bucket is the only one left and he is declared as the winner. Here comes the real surprise. Wonka reveals that the real prize is the factory itself. He was actually in search of someone to take it over and look after the Oompa-Loompas who work there, once he retires.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was first published in the United States and became an immediate best seller. The story was originally inspired by Roald Dahl’s experience of chocolate companies during his schooldays. During his schooldays, chocolate companies would often send test packages to the schoolchildren in exchange for their opinions on the new products.

The film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was as famous as the book. Johnny Depp plays Willy Wonka in the film. In the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Gene Wilder plays the character of Willy Wonka. The Oompa-Loompas in the film are orange-skinned with green wigs and have a quirky hair style.

Remember the tall cat that looks like a human, with a red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie? This cat appears in The Cat in the Hat. This novel was written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel and was published in 1957 under the pen name Dr. Seuss.

The Cat shows up at the house of Sally and her brother on a rainy day when their mother is away. The Cat shows the children a few of his tricks in an attempt to entertain them, despite the repeated objections from the children’s fish.

In the process of entertaining the kids, he and his companions, Thing One and Thing Two, wreck the house. Things take a turn here. The children and the fish become more and more alarmed. In the end, the Cat produces a machine that he uses to clean everything up and disappears just before their mother comes home.

There is an interesting story behind the name of this novel. Geisel decided to create a story based on the first two rhyming words he found - cat and hat!

Picture Credit : Google

Carlo Collodi of Florence, an Italian author wrote The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1883. Pinocchio has been conquering the hearts of generations of children ever since.

Pinocchio is a wooden marionette, carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan village. A marionette is a puppet manipulated using wires. However, the piece of wood from which he is derived is animated. Therefore, Pinocchio moves independently. Pinocchio is often depicted with a pointy hat, a jacket and a pair of coloured, knee-length pants.

Pinocchio is prone to lying and is often carried away by bad company. But Pinocchio always gets caught while lying; his nose grows long once he starts lying. This often lands him in trouble.

Let us now talk about some of the famous episodes from the novel. Pinocchio undergoes several funny transformations. He promises the Fairy with Turquoise Hair to become a real boy, flees with Candlewick to the Land of Toys, becomes a donkey, joins a circus, and becomes a puppet again. Thanks to the intervention of the Fairy in a dream, Pinocchio finally becomes a real boy.

Collodi’s original serial was meant to serve as a warning against bad behaviour. It ended with Pinocchio’s fatal hanging. However, the story’s fans were disappointed and Collodi’s publishers insisted that he resurrect Pinocchio and continue the puppet’s adventures.

Pinocchio is a cultural icon now. He is one of the most re-imagined characters in children’s literature. He has been adapted into films as well, the most notable one being the one made by Disney.

Picture Credit : Google

Dorothy Gale is a young girl who lives with her Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and dog, Toto, on a farm on the Kansas prairie.

One day, Dorothy and Toto get caught up in a cyclone that deposits them and the farmhouse into Munchkin Country in the magical land of Oz. if you want to know more about Dorothy and her dog, you should read the Oz novels written by L. Frank Baum.

Dorothy first appears in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Dorothy lands in the magical land of Oz in this novel. It contains one of the best-known stories in American literature and has been widely translated. Its ground breaking success led Baum to write thirteen additional Oz novels that serve as official sequels to the first story. Dorothy has appeared in many of the sequels as well.

The Wicked Witch of the East, the evil ruler of the Munchkins is killed by the falling house. Learning about the death of the wicked witch, the Good Witch of the North arrives with three grateful Munchkins and gives Dorothy the magical silver shoes. The silver shoes had once belonged to the Wicked Witch.

The Good Witch also helps Dorothy to get back to her house. The Good Witch tells her that the only way she can return home is to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and ask the great and powerful Wizard of Oz to help her.

This is why Dorothy embarks on a journey, to meet the Wizard of Oz.

Picture Credit : Google

Baba Yaga is an ogress who snatches, cooks, and eats her victims. Her victims are usually children. She is a guardian of the fountains of the water of life. Baba Yaga lives with two or three sisters - all known as Baba Yaga- in a forest but that spins continually on birds’ legs. The fence of their house is topped with human skulls. Sounds scary, right?

Baba Yaga often accompanies Death on his travels, devouring newly released souls. She can ride through air. She usually rides in an iron kettle or in a mortar that she drives with a pestle. She is also capable of creating storms wherever she goes. Baba Yaga and her deeds can frighten young children.

This terrifying ogress appears in Slavic folklore. In fact, the term ‘Baba’ in Old Russian means ‘sorceress’ or ‘fortune teller’. Baba Yaga has appeared in thousands of folktales in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

The first clear reference to Baba Yaga occurs in 1755 though. She is often found in a turning, chicken-legged hut, or driving a pestle. She often rests stretched out over the stove, reaching from one corner of the hut to another.

No doubt, Baba Yaga is one of the most memorable and distinctive figures in eastern European folklore.

Picture Credit : Google

Peter Pan is a free-spirited young boy who never grows up. This mischievous boy with a never-ending childhood can fly. He spends his time in an island called Neverland. He is the leader of a group called Lost Boys. Little Peter Pan leads a life of adventure interacting with fairies, pirates, mermaids, Native Americans, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland.

Peter Pan was created by J M Barrie, a Scottish novelist and playwright. Peter Pan stories also involve other characters like Wendy Darling and her two brothers, Peter’s fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and the pirate Captain Hook. The novel was first published in 1911. In 1929, Barrie gave the copyright of Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital, a children’s hospital in London.

Besides the novel, Barrie also wrote a play featuring this adorable kid. The play was titled Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up and had three acts. This play was revised many times and finally, in 1929, a definitive version containing five acts was published. Peter Pan has been featured in a variety of media and merchandise. The first film featuring the character came out in 1924.

In 1953, Walt Disney produced an enduringly popular animated feature film on Peter Pan. Disney’s Peter Pan was different from Barrie’s original creation; he was more charmingly impish than the somewhat selfish Peter of Barrie’s play and book.

The play was adapted for television in 1955 and again in 1960. An acclaimed Broadway musical version starring Mary Martin as Peter Pan and directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, won three Tony Awards.

Picture Credit : Google

The phrase ‘Open Sesame’ is perhaps the first thing that comes to our mind when we think of Ali Baba. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is one of the best stories from The Thousand and One Nights. Ali Baba, the hero of the story is a poor woodcutter who one day, secretly watches 40 thieves who were hiding their booty in a cave. The door to the cave can be opened only by the verbal command, ‘Open, Sesame!’

After the thieves leave, Ali Baba uses this magic phrase, takes the riches from the cave, and lives a prosperous life. The thieves eventually suspect Ali Baba, and they hide themselves in large oil jars. These oil jars are stored overnight in Ali Baba’s courtyard.

When Morgiana, Ali Baba’s slave goes to extract oil from one of the jars, she hears a robber’s whisper. Realizing that the robbers hiding in the jar were waiting to kill her master, she pours hot oil into each jar, thus killing the robbers. Morgiana later saves Ali Baba’s life a second time. Ali Baba in gratitude, frees her. She marries Ali Baba’s son, and the entire family lives happily.

Picture Credit : Google

Who doesn’t like Mowgli, a boy who is abandoned in an Indian jungle during a tiger attack? Mowgli is perhaps the most famous character created by Rudyard Kipling.

Mowgli is adopted by the Wolf Mother Raksha who gives him this name- a name that conquered the hearts of children around the world. The word Mowgli means frog; he gets this name because he has no fur, and refuses to sit still. Sher Khan, the tiger demands that they give him the baby, but the wolves refuse.

Mowgli grows up with the pack and soon becomes one among them. He hunts with his brother wolves and is able to stare down any wolf. His ability to remove the thorns stuck on the paws of his brothers is deeply appreciated as well. Finally, Mowgli stumbles across a village where a woman named Messua adopts him. This forces him to come to terms with his human nature.

Picture Credit : Google

Author Lewis Carroll wrote this story for his young niece Alice. Alice, who falls asleep in a meadow, dreams that she follows a White Rabbit down a rabbit hole. She then falls into a dreamland full of wonders.

Alice has many wondrous adventures with thoroughly illogical and very strange creatures, often changing size unexpectedly. Alice’s size changes too. On one occasion, she grows as tall as a house. Later, she shrinks to the size of a finger. She encounters the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, the Duchess with a baby that becomes a pig, and the Cheshire Cat.

Alice attends a strange endless tea party with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. She plays a game of croquet with an unmanageable flamingo for a croquet mallet and uncooperative hedgehogs for croquet balls. Later, she meets a sobbing Mock Turtle, who describes his education in subjects such as Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.

Alice is then called as a witness in the trial of the Knave of Hearts, who is accused of having stolen the Queen’s tarts. However, when the Queen demands that Alice be beheaded, Alice realizes that the characters are only a pack of cards, and she then awakens from her dream.

Little Alice appears in two novels- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. Alice has been identified as a cultural icon.

Picture Credit : Google

The American novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs first created Tarzan in 1912 for a magazine story. But Tarzan became so popular that two years later, he published a novel named Tarzan of the Apes. It was followed by a series of successful sequels that sold more than 25 million copies across the world.

Tarzan is the son of an English nobleman who gets abandoned in the great jungles of Africa. He is then found and raised by a tribe of great apes. In the course of a series of improbable but exciting adventures, he learns English, meets and falls in love with Jane, the daughter of an American scientist, and recovers his title.

Tarzan is a tall, handsome man of athletic build with grey eyes and long black hair. He is courageous, intelligent, loyal, and steadfast. However, he forgets his ethics and takes revenge when his ape mother Kala is killed in Tarzan of the Apes and when he believes Jane; his wife has been murdered in Tarzan the Untamed.

Picture Credit : Google

 

Let us now turn our attention to a superspy. The mere mention of Agent 007 is enough to thrill many of us. Trained in espionage and the martial arts, James Bond is a part of the British Secret Service, or MI6. He is always in action, thwarting the enemies, catching international criminals and proving his brilliance time and again.

James Bond’s style and charisma are unmatched, but despite his popularity, he is virtually friendless. James Bond was created by Ian Fleming for his 1953 thriller Casino Royale. Fleming based James Bond on a number of individuals he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division and 30 Assault Unit during the Second World War. ‘Bond is a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war’, Fleming once said.

Fleming died in 1964, but this character was taken up by many other authors including Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver, William Boyd and Anthony Horowitz. Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz that came out in 2018 is the latest novel featuring James Bond.

James Bond stories have been adapted for television, radio, comic strips, video games and films. The Bond films are renowned for a number of features. Their theme songs have received Academy Award nominations on several occasions. Other attractions in most of these films include Bond’s cars, his guns, and the gadgets that he uses.

Sherlock Holmes needs no introduction; he is the best-known fictional detective and his fame surpasses every other fictional detective ever created. His proficiency in observation, logical reasoning, forensic science and nose for details makes him different from the rest of the crowd. Sherlock Holmes was created by the British author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Holmes calls himself a ‘consulting detective’ and is busy solving many criminal cases across London, the south of England and continental Europe.

The mastermind of Sherlock Holmes becomes clearer when explained by Dr. John H. Watson, his companion. Holmes and Watson solved many cases together.

Holmes works as a detective for twenty-three years, with Watson assisting him for seventeen of those years. There are 56 short stories and four novels featuring Sherlock Holmes. Holmes first appeared in print in 1887 in the short story A Study in Scarlet. This quirky detective became an instant hit after the first series of short stories.