Sunday, July 3, 2011

Matilda by Roald Dahl

I bought this hardback edition of Matilda when I was teaching on the west coast of Tasmania at South Queenstown Primary (which no longer exists) and my grade 6 class just loved it. It is an outstanding book by the famous author Roald Dahl who also wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and The Twits which are equally memorable. Its central character is the very intelligent Matilda who can read novels like Great Expectations and multiply fourteen by nineteen in a flash. Unfortunately, she lives with two undesirable parents, a lay-about mum and a dodgy used-cars salesman father who are blind to the fact they have a gifted daughter. In fact they treat her like dirt. At school she has to deal with the Trunchball, who lives up to her name, but luckily finds an ally in her classroom teacher, Miss Honey. There is adventure, magic and violence, the stuff of Dahl novels, and it is hard to put this one down. Students who read this novel can borrow the DVD I have. Here is the trailer for it:

1 comment:

  1. One of Roald Dahl's best books I have read because it has heaps of humour but the humour is also crulty.Miss trunchball, Zinnie and Harry wormwood treat Matilda like a rubber band.She has had enough of their crulty and is out for revenge like the other kids.Then Matilda becomes friends with her school teacher.
    Brandon

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