Many writers since the 1970s had been hailed as his successor, but none had attained anything near his popularity with children and, in a poll conducted shortly after the launch of Philosopher's Stone, seven of the ten most popular children's books were by Dahl, including the one in top place.
Mange forfattere har siden 1970'erne hyldet ham, men ingen har opnået noget nær hans popularitet hos børn og, i en undersøgelse lavet kort efter De Vises Sten, var syv ud af de ti mest populære børnebøger af Dahl, også den øverstrangerede.