41 pages 1 hour read

Roald Dahl

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1972

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Chapters 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 16 Summary: “Vita-Wonk and Minusland”

Seeing his mother’s distress at her mother’s disappearance, Charlie asks Wonka to bring Grandma Georgina back as soon as possible. Charlie and Wonka go to Minusland to save Georgina before she gets “minused” (de-ages) even more. Charlie and Wonka take a twisting and turning elevator; Charlie glimpses an amazing array of landscapes, including a candy quarry and chocolate-spurting derricks in a desert-landscape.

Wonka explains that, using extracts from ancient creatures around the world, he developed an aging medication to bring those in the Minuses back into the Pluses.

They arrive in the swirling gray mists of Minusland.

Chapter 17 Summary: “Rescue in Minusland”

Fearful of Gnoolies, invisible creatures whose bites cause you to subtract and then painfully divide, they peer into the mists, looking for Grandma Georgina. They see her vague outline in the mist. Wonka sprays her with Vita-Wonk, the antidote to Wonka-Vite. Grandma Georgina disappears; Wonka explains that she is a plus again and has gone back to the factory, although he explains that it’s an imprecise science, and that he may have given her too much Vita-Wonk.

They strap into the elevator and leave Minusland.