The first thing to learn about the great glass elevator (for when it accidentally shoots up into the Earth's orbit), is how to use jet propulsion to manoeuvre in space. You use your mouth as the steering wheel. If you blow downwards, you go up; if you blow to the right, you go left. It is a simple but essential trick. Make sure you learn it well so that you can join Willy Wonka, Charlie and his family in the great glass elevator. In Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, besides learning jet propulsion, you will also read about the gang's space and time travels. Willy Wonka's original plan was to take Charlie and his family to the chocolate factory in the great glass elevator. But they shoot up a bit too high and go into orbit, which means they are rushing around the Earth at 17,000 miles an hour. To bring the elevator back on track is a piece of cake for Wonka the inventor. But when they come across the magnificent Space Hotel USA in orbit, Wonka decides to take a detour. The Space Hotel is the marvel of the space age - a gigantic sausage-shaped capsule that contains everything from luxury rooms and swimming pools to a gravity-making machine. The small spaceship following behind it is the transport capsule. It transports the hotel staff from Earth to their workplace. It is headed by three idiotic astronauts who report to a nanny-dependent president of the United States. How the White House reacts to the unidentified glass elevator is as hilarious a how its finance secretary balances his budget on his bald head. While the White House is exhausting its efforts to identify who on Earth (or in space) the elevator gang is, something else is lurking up there - vicious aliens, the Knids - who can spell and are proud of it! After rounds of bat tle, the elevator rescues the transport capsule from the grip of the Knids and finally arrives at the chocolate factory. Before they can catch their breath, they have found themselves on the threshold of time travel. Wonka invents the magic Wonka-Vite pill to make people young again. Each pill will subtract 20 years. Some greedy pill- takers however, become a minus. To rescue them, Charlie and Wonka dive into Minusland. Minusland is a spooky place, filled with thick rolling fog, hidden with invisible Gnoolies who can bite you, subtract you, divide you and turn you into a gnoolie, too. Will everyone get their years back and become themselves again? Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is written in the tradition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Puns and philosophical reflections are woven into a portrayal of an absolutely incredible yet completely convincing fantasy world. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl ISBN 0 14 03.7155 9 Graphic: YP7BSGLO