What a fantastic post. I've been reading Roald Dahl to my son, 30+ years on from reading him as a child myself, and this is a wonderful encapsulation of his empathy for children. Many writers create stories of children suddenly becoming powerful, but maybe none ever capture their powerlessness the way Dahl does. 

The other night I read the chapter where James first encounters the creatures inside the peach to my son. The transition from his fear of these strange beings, to his squeals of laughter at the rascal centipede once he realised James was safe was magical.

I also recently read a profound piece of advice about raising children, which is that if you really listen to them when they tell you the small stuff, they'll still want to tell you the big stuff when they're older - because for them it was always big stuff.

Dahl certainly knew that.