LONDON (AP) - Critics are accusing the British publisher of Roald Dahl's classic children's books of censorship once it removed colorful language from works such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Matilda" to make them more acceptable to unique readers.

A review of new editions of Dahl's books now available in bookstores shows that some passages relating to weight, mental health, gender and race were altered. The shifts made by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Random House, first were reported by Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Augustus Gloop, Charlie's gluttonous antagonist in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which originally was delivered in 1964, is no longer "enormously fat," just "enormous." In the new edition of "Witches," a supernatural female posing as an improbable woman may be working as a "top scientist or sprinting a business" instead of as a "cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman."

The word "black" was contained from the description of the terrible tractors in 1970s "The Fabulous Mr. Fox." The machines are now modestly "murderous, brutal-looking monsters."

Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie was by those who reacted angrily to the rewriting of Dahl's footings. Rushdie lived in hiding for years after Iran's Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 published a fatwa calling for his death because of the alleged blasphemy in his unique "The Satanic Verses." He was attacked and seriously injured last year at an hide in New York state.

Salman Rushdie, British Indian novelist and essayist, attends a reading of his book on November 21, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)

"Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship,'' Rushdie wrote on Twitter. "Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.''

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The shifts to Dahl's books mark the latest skirmish in a debate over cultural sensitivity as campaigners seek to protecting young people from cultural, ethnic and gender stereotypes in literature and novel media. Critics complain revisions to suit 21st century sensibilities risks undermining the genius of gargantuan artists and preventing readers from confronting the world as it is.

The Roald Dahl Story Company, which controls the rights to the books, said it worked with Puffin to journal the texts because it wanted to ensure that "Dahl's unbelievable stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today."

The languages was reviewed in partnership with Inclusive Minds, a collective which is operational to make children's literature more inclusive and accessible. Any shifts were "small and carefully considered," the company said.

It said the analysis started in 2020, afore Netflix bought the Roald Dahl Story Company and embarked on plans to design a new generation of films based on the author's books.

"When publishing new ticket runs of books written years ago, it's not unique to review the language used alongside updating other details, including a book's cover and page layout,'' the commercial said. "Our guiding principle throughout has been to contain the storylines, characters, and the irreverence and sharp-edged intriguing of the original text."

Puffin didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Dahl died in 1990 at the age of 74. His books, which have sold more than 300 million copies, have been translated into 68 footings and continue to be read by children around the world.

But he is also a controversial figure because of antisemitic comments made over his life.

The Dahl family apologized in 2020, proverb it recognized the "lasting and understandable hurt caused by Roald Dahl's antisemitic statements."

Author Roald Dahl with wife Patricia Neal and children Lucy and Orphelia. 31st January 1968. Y1057. (Photo by Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

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PEN America, a community of some 7,500 writers that advocates for freedom of tiring„ tiresome, said it was "alarmed" by reports of the moves to Dahl's books.

"If we start down the path of trying to factual for perceived slights instead of allowing readers to claim and react to books as written, we risk distorting the work of immense authors and clouding the essential lens that literature funds on society," tweeted Suzanne Nossel, chief executive of PEN America.

Laura Hackett, a childhood Dahl fan who is now deputy literary editor of London's Sunday Times newspaper, had a more personal reaction to the news.

"The editors at Puffin must be ashamed of the botched surgery they've carried out on some of the finest children's literature in Britain," she wrote. "As for me, I'll be carefully stowing away my old, fresh copies of Dahl's stories, so that one day my children can savory them in their full, nasty, colorful glory."