History Literature / CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator

** Also, when Mr. Wonka trots out Wonka-Vite to get the other grandparents out of bed, Charlie is nervous about letting them anywhere near the stuff, remembering what happened with the ''last'' miracle invention Mr. Wonka showed off -- namely the imperfect three-course-meal gum that turned Violet into a blueberry. This time the pills work as they're supposed to, but the grandparents foolishly overdose on them, and the chapter title "Good-bye Grandma Georgina" even calls back to the first book's "Good-by Violet"!

* AlliterativeName / PunnyName: Actress Helen Highwater, only mentioned in passing, and Space Hotel employee Walter Wall.

* AndTheAdventureContinues / SequelHook: At the end, the gang is off to the White House to be hailed as heroes...

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin / InWhichATropeIsDescribed: As with its predecessor, many chapter titles spoil the events of said chapters, especially in the second half ("Good-bye Grandma Georgina", "Rescue in Minusland", etc.).

* IWasQuiteALooker: While going through the Wonka Vite pill transformation, Mrs Bucket gets to see that her parents were quite beautiful in their youth.

* KidSidekick / TagalongKid: Charlie doesn't get to do a whole lot in this story other than occasionally play TheWatson -- a role he shares with all the other adults that aren't Willy Wonka, the real protagonist this time out.

* AnAesop / MoralityBallad: The Oompa-Loompas deliver a song about not "help[ing] yourself/To medicine from the medicine shelf" in the wake of the grandparents' de-aging themselves with too much Wonka-Vite. Also counts as...
** SpaceWhaleAesop: Taking forbidden medicine and/or too much of it will either de-age you out of this plane of existence ''or'' confine you to the toilet for most of your waking hours for the rest of your life.

You'll probably be unsurprised to hear that this book was/is a lot less popular than the original ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', though it remains in print to this day. It has never had a film adaptation, since Dahl hated ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' enough to refuse all rights to make this book into a film. Most adaptations of ''Chocolate Factory'', including the 2005 Creator/TimBurton [[Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory film adaptation]] and [[Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory the 2013 stage musical]], have complete closure, negating the circumstances of this book (and thus serving as AlternateContinuity). However, Richard George adapted it into a play, and there have been at least five different audiobook versions.

** The Vermicious Knids. They ''look'' completely innocuous at first - just a furry egg-shaped blob with eyes. But them they reveal themselves as sadistic predators - those Michael Foreman illustrations are NightmareFuel incarnate --and ''[[ImAHumanitarian eat people]]'' - exactly ''how'' is apparently too awful to describe, but the radio feed from a Knid attack is horrifying. ("they have other things to bite with.") They don't ''just'' eat people, either. They deliberately provoke their would-be prey to run (by spelling "SCRAM") so they can give chase and prolong their suffering. They've (apparently) wiped out all living things on three planets already and can't reach Earth only because they burn up in our atmosphere. Lovecraft would be proud.

** The Vermicious Knids. They ''look'' completely innocuous at first - just a furry egg-shaped blob with eyes. But them they reveal themselves as sadistic predators and ''[[ImAHumanitarian eat people]]'' - exactly ''how'' is apparently too awful to describe, but the radio feed from a Knid attack is horrifying. ("they have other things to bite with.") And they're extremely nasty, deliberately provoking their would-be prey to run (by spelling "SCRAM") so they can give chase and prolong their suffering. They've (apparently) wiped out all living things on three planets already and can't reach Earth because they burn up in our atmosphere. Lovecraft would be proud.

* EldritchAbomination: An extremely unusual example in the Gnoolies. Negative-space invisible bugs. So what makes them either Eldritch ''or'' Abomination? '''They bite''', and once bitten, their venom forces your age to divide, and divide, and divide, until you become nothing but a swarm of Gnoolies yourself.

* EldritchAbomination: An extremely unusual example in the Gnoolies. Negative space-invisible bugs. So what makes them either Eldritch ''or'' Abomination? '''They bite''', and once bitten, their venom forces your age to divide, and divide, and divide, until you become a swarm of Gnoolies yourself.

* * The President also accidentally dials a grocer in Shanghai and a stationmaster in Chongqing. The Postmaster General explains that calling China is difficult as [[InsaneTrollLogic the country is so full of Wings and Wongs that every time you wing you get the wong number]].

* PunnyName: Besides Helen Highwater there's a Soviet premier named Yugetoff.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: The astronauts are named Shuckworth, Shanks, and Showler, and they're heading up a Commuter Capsule to boot!

* AlliterativeName / PunnyName: Actress Helen Highwater, only mentioned in passing.

Dahl was working on a third book, ''Charlie in the White House'', but when he died, only one chapter was complete, [[OrphanedSeries hence the lack of real closure at the end of this one]].

* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: Lancelot R. Gilligrass may be the arch-typical President Buffoon. (In Quentin Blake's illustrations, he bears a strong resemblance to a similarly incompetent fictional president, [[Film/DrStrangelove Merkin Muffley]].)

* OutsideContextVillain: The Vermicious Knids, whom most of humanity is completely unaware of; when the crew and guests of the space hotel are attacked by them, they have no choice but to flee. Luckily, Willy Wonka is this to the Knids -- he not only knows what they and their weaknesses are, but took the trouble to ensure that the Elevator is Knidproof!