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Going SoloRoald Dahl
Going Solo
by Roald Dahl
Dahl's own account of Africa and the RAF: a green mamba on the path, a crash in the desert, and a war fought in obsolete aircraft.
A story about a grown-up hero, wry and adventurous in tone. We would put it with children of 10–13, and at a reading age of about 11 for reading alone.
Worth knowing before you buy
- Death in wartime
- Frightening scenes
None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.
Our take on this book
In this sequel to Boy, Roald Dahl tells the true story of his young adulthood: sailing to Africa to work before the war, encounters with snakes and lions, and then his time as a Second World War fighter pilot, including the crash that nearly killed him. It is autobiography written with all Dahl's storytelling relish — vivid, funny, and unsparing about danger and death — and it gives an older child a gripping first-hand window onto a vanished colonial world and the reality of aerial combat. Because it is real war, there is wartime death and genuine peril, told honestly rather than sensationally, which makes it more suitable for a reader ready for grown-up subject matter. For a confident reader of eleven upward, it is a thrilling, eye-opening read — the same voice that wrote the novels turned on a real and often dangerous life, and a natural next step for a child who has devoured Dahl's fiction and wants to know the man behind it.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
Alone on a Wide Wide SeaMichael Morpurgo
The Eagle of the NinthRosemary Sutcliff
RooftoppersKatherine Rundell
Waiting for AnyaMichael Morpurgo
Artemis FowlEoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic IncidentEoin Colfer
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.