KidLit Forum

This is a funny yet heartfelt moving story about a small girl who comes from a hellish family but shows a tender heart and an optimistic personality.
Matilda is an extraodinary 5 year old girl with amazing mental powers with her eyes and brain. She lives to do anything to get rid of the school's principal and finds a new family with a teacher in her grade while her family is moving. She is willing to always try her best and shares her thoughts to everyone. She gives hope to others and she finds happiness.
But, Matilda is not the only character. There are the tyrannical parents who do not encourage reading, do not have a shred of love or sympathy for Matilda and basically hate Matilda for some unknown reason. They even abandon her without even thinking twice. Who does that???? Especially with out any sane cause.

What makes any of Dahl's books (including this one) so popular among children is the fact that the kid always wins. Isn't it any kid's dream to get back at the adults who control their lives just because they can? And I'm talking about the "bad" kind of adults. Like Matilda's parents. Dahl's adults are mostly "bad" and absurdly cruel, vicious. And it makes me wonder about the kind of adults he grew up near. Nevertheless, he is the one to be on the children's side, winning against the big bad people. It strikes me how the book ends though. It may seem a happy ending both for Matilda and Miss Honey, but honestly.......how would this work in real life? What sort of parent would just leave their child like that behind?
Another interesting idea is how Dahl pictures the British school and education in general. How he creates the character of Mrs. Trunchbull and her punishments for "bad" children.
Bottom line, I think this book really makes you think about such children who come from careless families. Although Dahl probably exaggerates a bit regarding the family, one realizes that such children do exist - prodigies that are neglected by their own parents. Luckily, there are such happy cases in which a teacher observes their intelligence and does something about it. As teachers, we should pay attention to such children and do whatever it takes to get the best out of them, to encourage them and sort of help build their self esteem (maybe destroyed by people around who call them "geeks" or worse, bully them). Which teacher wouldn't dream to become like Miss Honey? To influence and to shape such an interesting mind like Matilda's? To actually make a difference in one child's life?