Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl

Or Rood/Rool Dial as he will now always be to me.

A tried to read this a while ago and declared it "boring".  I said "I remember hating it too", but after visiting the museum this week, I realised I could remember what happened in it at all.  I searched out my old copy and re-read it in the evening after we got back from the museum.

Hmmmm.  There's a little bit of Dr Who in one of the wacky episodes about it.  It's about the Space Hotel launched by the USA and how the Vernicious Knids get into it in an attempt to use it to invade the earth.  Mr Wonka saves the day, and all is well.  There was meant to be a third in the series where the gang visit the White House, but Dahl never wrote it.

I didn't hate it as much as I remember hating it as a child.  But I think that's because I read it straight after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which is pretty close to writing-for-children perfection.  The Great Glass Elevator is very far from that, but as a stand-alone, it's not really all that awful.  Not a sequel to be read straight after the original though, I think.