Here's a potentially interesting book that I found on Free Book Sifter, a website that lists all the free Kindle books available on Amazon. It's called I Want it Now! A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and was written by Julie Dawn Cole, the actress who played spoiled brat Veruca Salt in the 1971 movie. It's been marked down to $0.00 on Amazon. It has 4.5 out of 5 stars with 47 reviews.

Julie Dawn Cole has written an enchanting and richly illustrated memoir that offers a rare look behind the stage curtain to this ageless film. Splendidly illustrated with personal letters, never-seen-before photographs and documents; her mesmerizing story chronicles the entire production experience and tells of the remarkable journey of how she became known worldwide as a really bad egg. Filled with countless funny and touching memories, her story takes readers behind-the-scenes of Willy Wonka and the resulting coming of age journey that brought the cast together again after nearly a quarter century. I Want it Now takes readers beyond the world of pure imagination and behind the scenes to this universally cherished motion picture. A true-to-life Charlie Bucket tale, Julie's story is unforgettable...

I Want it Now! A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Read more in Family at Boing Boing

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

TAGS: books family movies

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morcheeba

I blame Comic Sans for the $0.00 price tag.
- petz79
  
  That really was the first thing I saw on that cover.
  - tewsday
    
    Same here.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  Beat me to it :(
- Cowicide
  
  Oh, jeez… such a shame they used that font. Like everyone else, I came here about the tragic font usage as well.
Gregg Grose

Nice find, thanks Mark.

I will now also have that song in my head for the rest of the day. “I want the works, I want the whole works”
- http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood
  
  “I want a feast…I want a bean feast!”
  
  Which, when I was a kid, was dissonant…I didn’t know what it meant, then, and couldn’t reconcile beans with “Cream buns and donuts and fruitcake with no nuts.”
http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

There’s so much infringement on that cover…

Just to make sure I stuck ‘chocolate swirl’ into Google Images.

Yup, they used Google images to make the cover. Off to http://lousybookcovers.tumblr.com/ with you!
http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

Look closely at Veruca’s father (Roy Kinnear) and you can tell Veruca is standing right in front of him. Her hat can be seen poking up out of the hat of the larger Veruca in the foreground.
- Cowicide
  
  Between this and the comic sans font, this cover is tragic. Where’s a decent graphic designer when you need them?
  - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
    
    Charging a fee, that’s where.
    
    In all fairness it is a reasonably well cobbled together Google Image collage – whatever that’s worth.
    - Cowicide
      
      Charging a fee, that’s where.
      
      You get what you pay for… or don’t…
      - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
        
        Damn straight.
ChickieD

On one of the DVDs of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory there is an extra DVD where they go back and interview the child stars. I checked on Amazon and there is currently a 40th Anniversary Edition out, so I’m guessing the one I saw was a 30th Anniversary or 25th Anniversary Edition.

This woman was the most interesting interview. She has been a working professional actress for many years:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170628/

For $0.00 this is probably worth the price. I thought she was quite articulate.
Paul Renault

From her WIki page: “Whenever Holly (her daughter) said or did anything brattish, I’d just go, ‘Is there a problem, Veruca? Can I help you?’ That always snapped her out of it.”

She seems to another data point in a Strong Law that actors’ personality is usually the opposite of the roles they are identified with.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  It’s easier to play a character than be yourself.
emo hex

Someone do me a solid and post a pdf version.

Memoir of the making of Willy Wonka by the actress who played Veruca Salt

Read more in Family at Boing Boing

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