KidLit Forum

"Matilda" by Roald Dahl remembered me of another book with the same topic "The book thief" by Markus Zusak. In those two books we discovered the burning passion for reading.
Matilda is an incredible girl. She likes very much reading books, but her father didn’t understand her. For this fact of misunderstanding, he has to pay. She takes care of him for paying. This facts are very funny:first she put super glue in her father’s hat, than she hide in the chimney a talking parrot to scared her parents and they think that in the house may be a ghost, and many of these.

This is also an educational book and a good lesson for the readers which have children and also for those which will have in the future.

I really liked this book because it made me think of me as a kid. Although I was not so talented as Matilda and I couldn't read so young, I read a lot when growing up. I was an only child and I would hide in my immaginary world from the pages of books. I totally get Matilda for not fitting in her family and she made me dream about having special magical powers. Matilda is a different child in many ways. First of all, she likes School and books! Then, she finds out that she has some unnatural powers to lift or close objects with her mind. But what I really like about her is the playful way she acts in every situation. The end of the book was a bit of a surprise because she abandoned her parents for Miss Honey,her teacher but it also gave me the feeling that justice has been done!

Reading Matilda I first believed that the two parents just lack parental skills or instincts, and that's why they act not only distant, but with hatred towards their child. Thinking again, they indeed lack parental instincts, but they treat Matilda's brother almost reasonably, except the meals in front of tv and such things. So I believe these two parents, both of them, are misogynists. They strongly believe that the woman should be an ornament more in the men's house, and she should keep her mouth shut as much as possible.

Indeed the facts are exaggerated, but I liked very much the way that Matilda chose to deal with her parents. Her little victories over her parents are justified, that's how she didn't let the problems to reach her soul, and took them nicely.
Matilda is also an inspiration for motivation, this shows children that is cool to be smart, and even if they have a special power they should not necessarily rely on it, and work hard to obtain success.

It is a nice reading and the story and the characters are very easy to be imagined, and quite hard to forget. The message is a nice one: children are not pets, you can not return them at the store if you change your mind, so think about it; and also if you like to prove your superiority only among small children and you don't speak kindness, not even as a foreign language, you have nothing to do with being a teacher, so make yourself a favor... prove yourself superior in other ways;

I saw the movie when I was a young girl and I enjoyed it a lot. Now I had the chance to read it and I liked it even more. Matilda and Miss Honey don't ressemble so much with the characters from the movie but Mrs Trunchball looks exactly like the illustration from the book. While reading the awful things she did to the poor children I kept having in mind the images from the movie.

This is a great children's book and I can't wait for my chldren to read it.