Famous children’s author Roald Dahl’s books will soon be altered and language that is deemed offensive, such as fat shaming and gender bias, will be removed.
It’s publisher Puffin books has hired sensitivity readers to make changes to certain portions of his books. The rewrite will remove references to some characters being fat and will change some of the language used to make certain characters more gender neutral.
For instance, Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now described as enormous, while Mrs Twit from The Twits is described as just beastly as opposed to ugly and beastly.
Gender Bias No More
In James and the Giant Peach, Miss Sponge is no longer described as “the fat one”, Miss Spider’s head is not “black” anymore, and the Earthworm has given up its “lovely pink” skin for “lovely smooth skin”.
In The Witches, in the paragraphs noting that witches are bald beneath their wigs is a new line that reads: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.” Also in the same book the description of fat little brown mouse has been change to little brown mouse.
In Matilda, Mrs Trunchbull’s great horsey face has been changed to simply face and eight nutty little idiots now reads as eight nutty little boys.
The Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were once described by Dahl as “small men” but now they are known in the rewritten books as “small people”. In the same way, in James and the Giant Peach, the Cloud Men are now Cloud-People.
Wonderful stories
A spokesperson for Puffin books told Fox News, “We want to ensure Roald Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today. When publishing new print runs of books written years ago, it’s not unusual to review the language used alongside updating other details including a book’s cover and page layout.
“Our guiding principle throughout has been to maintain the storylines, characters, the irreverence and sharp-edged spirit of the original text. Any changes made have been small and carefully considered. As part of our process to review the language used we worked in partnership with Inclusive Minds, a collective for people who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children’s literature. The current review began in 2020, before Dahl was acquired by Netflix. It was led by Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company together.”
Roald Dahl died in 1990. So now his books will not have fat shaming or gender bias!
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