Elena Velasco, an 11-year-old Colombian girl, learned a few days ago that Puffin publishers wanted to retouch Roald Dahl’s books. The intention was to make it more inclusive, without descriptions like “fat” or “ugly” or mentions of authors accused of colonialism, like Rudyard Kipling. And Elena didn’t like that. Out of him came a speech of rejection which he read to his mother and which later led to a letter. “You read the books as editors and not as readers,” he accused. For her, the lyrics she has cherished since she was seven are in danger of losing their essence.
The first of Dahl’s works to fascinate Elena was George’s Wonderful Medicine. There he enters the world of a child who is fed up with his grandmother’s abuse and decides to make a strange medicine for him. “He poured everything in it…gasoline, paint, nail polish and veterinary medicine. He gave it to her and she started to grow and grow until she hit the roof of the house,” says Elena. In her opinion, it’s a simple story that’s ideal for engaging with the British author. He doesn’t find her cruel: “Grandma doesn’t suffer, she’s happy when she sleeps in the stable, she’s never gone out.”
The young reader does not believe that any child will think of imitating the protagonist. “Children are not stupid. At my age you know it’s fiction and when I was younger it was told in a way that didn’t make you think about doing it. It’s not about influencing, it’s about enjoying,” he comments. For them, Dahl’s teasing component is essential. Children identify, engage, and stay engaged. Therefore, changing the text carries great risks. “If children’s literature becomes more correct and wants to teach us something, it will no longer interest us. It becomes more of a commitment than fun,” says Elena.
However, the impact of these lyrics on Elena goes beyond entertainment. As a reader, she has acquired a precise and keen eye, paying attention to every detail of the texts. For example, he thinks it’s important to highlight that Dahl didn’t kill George’s Wonderful Medicine’s grandmother, leaving “an open end.” Also that The Witches, his favorite British writer’s book, loves him because it has “breaks” that allow him to get to know the characters better. A boy turned into a mouse and a now loving grandmother calmly utter in the middle of the story: “They talk about how long everyone will live. The child is afraid that his grandmother will die or that he will die sooner because he is a mouse.”
Author Yolanda Reyes, director of Espantapájaros Bookstore, highlights Elena’s ability to analyze. That’s why he published the letter when it reached him through the girl’s mother: “It seemed to me that it gave a voice to those of us who sometimes deal with excessive condescension and underestimate our interpretive abilities.” According to the author, children’s literature has been suffering for years from the “good intentions” of adults who confuse literature with “education”. He doesn’t like it when parents demand that the lyrics carry a lot of values or ask for self-help books. “Children have the right to read good literature,” he emphasizes.
The Bookseller, Elena’s former teacher, recalls that Dahl was always “wild” with children and loathed that they were treated condescendingly. He confronted them with sarcastic portraits of evil, grotesque, or ridiculous adults. And Elena agrees. He points out that Dahl was able to empathize because he remembered his own childhood experiences: “I did several exhibitions about him at school and recognized the connections to his own life. There was a director at the boarding school she didn’t like… that’s where she got her inspiration for the director’s character Tronchatoro in Matilda”.
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Elena Velasco wrote a letter to the British writer’s publisher, asking them not to change some of their favorite books. Diego Cuevas
The Author’s Death
Central to Elena’s letter is that Roald Dahl died in 1990, more than 32 years ago. “He can’t decide to make changes to his stories,” he reminds British publishers. And in an interview with this newspaper, he emphasizes that this is a serious transgression: “You are not him and you do not think like him. If they change their books, they won’t be theirs in the end.” According to Elena, it’s impossible to imagine the evil Tronchatoro as a “hypercorrect” woman with a friendly vocabulary and tone towards children. The character and story would be lost.
The publisher announced on Friday that it would at least partially back down: it would print both the original and the adapted version. However, Elena is not completely satisfied. He says he appreciates that they offer the option to buy the original lyrics or the new one, but reiterates that he still feels it’s unnecessary. “I wouldn’t buy a new modified version,” he notes. And fortunately he doesn’t have a problem with that as the Spanish publisher won’t be making any changes.
At the end of the interview, Elena’s mother tells her daughter that the original versions of The Magic Finger and the autobiographical work Boy have already arrived at the house. These are the two books by Dahl that the young reader still has to look forward to and that are her new goal. The controversy has prompted her to complete the author’s work.
Matilda, between childhood and adulthood
Elena has a special affection for Matilda, although “it’s kind of sad that the movie got more fame than the book.” Admire the protagonist, a bright girl who suffers from her parents’ misunderstanding and finds support in her teacher. The book tells how she and Miss Honey confront director Tronchatoro’s constant aggression together.
The character of Matilda, who gives her name to the novel, is notable for being a girl with “a grown-up side,” as Elena explains. “I like that she’s so small and thinks how she thinks. She reads books for the elderly, she thinks of the elderly,” says the young reader. At the same time, Matilda has the spirit of a child her age and the insight to seek revenge: “She acts like she’s replacing her father’s hair tonic with her mother’s color.”
The duality between maturity and childhood is reflected in Elena and her nuanced analysis of Dahl’s writing. But she dismisses the parallel. “I see myself more as a girl than as something more serious,” she says. Adulthood, he emphasizes, is still a long way off.
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