Have you or any kids you know ever read Matilda? If not, you may want to pick up a copy if you’d like a more uplifting, magical story to read just before Halloween. I’ve always loved Matilda since I was a kid. So I hope you or someone you know will appreciate this recommendation!
Publisher’s Summary:
Matilda is a genius, a genuine prodigy, but her idiot parents think she is a dolt. The sweet, sensitive girl is a scapegoat for everything that’s wrong in their terrible lives. Matilda’s happiest moments are spent reading books, and she’s excited to be starting school. That’s before she meets The Trunchbull, the kid-hating, bullying headmistress who terrorizes pupils and teachers alike. But when the Trunchbull goes after gentle Miss Honey, the one teacher who loves Matilda and believes in her, Matilda discovers her own remarkable superhuman powers to fight back.
Unappreciated and overlooked by her family, and often left at home by herself, Matilda escapes to a world of books as often as she can. After hearing a conversation between her father and her brother, Matilda realizes her dad is not only treating her unfairly, but running a crooked business, so she sets out to right the wrongs her parents commit by causing punishing them for their behavior. Still, despite disrupting the household, Matilda still is overlooked and her parents don’t even suspect her to be the mastermind behind all the mischief.
Matilda’s parents are so preoccupied with their own lives that they don’t even realize that Matilda is past the age to enter primary school. When Matilda finally starts school, she finds companionship in her classmates and teacher, Miss Honey, that she didn’t have with her family, but is soon confronted with another problem, The Trunchbull, the evil principal who is so bad she could make even Matilda’s parents look like good people.
The Trunchbull and her blind hatred for Matilda, Miss Honey, and all the children of the school pushes Matilda to discover a special ability within herself that’s just like magic. What is perhaps even more magical, however is how Matilda is able to find happiness and share it with others.
If the colder weather has got you down, maybe check out a cheery book like Matilda or even watch the movie featuring Mara Wilson, Danny DeVito, Pam Ferris, and Rhea Perlman. It’s one I’ve watched too many times to count!
Hope you enjoy!
Eleka
Also by Dahl:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The O'Fallon Public Library News 