Critics reject changes to Roald Dahl books as censorship

By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Critics are accusing the British publisher of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s books of censorship after it removed colorful language from works such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda” to make them more acceptable to modern readers. A review of new editions of Dahl’s books now available in bookstores shows that some passages relating to weight, mental health, gender and race were altered. Augustus Gloop, Charlie’s gluttonous antagonist in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” is no longer “enormously fat,” just “enormous.” The changes made by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Random House, were first reported by Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.