Matilda

Author: Roald Dahl
Pages: 240
Rating: PG

Summary:
Matilda is a sweet, exceptional young girl, but her parents think she's just a nuisance. She expects school to be different but there she has to face Miss Trunchbull, a kid-hating terror of a headmistress. When Matilda is attacked by the Trunchbull she suddenly discovers she has a remarkable power with which to fight back. It'll take a superhuman genius to give Miss Trunchbull what she deserves and Matilda may be just the one to do it!

My Thoughts: I know this is a really old book, but I've actually never read it before, so I gave it a try. In case you haven't read it, it's a very quick read, good for kids, probably best for mid-to upper elementary students. The first thing I thought when I read it was "Whoa! This book is so outdated!" 4 year old Matilda walks herself to the library and back every day to read books while her mother goes off to play bridge or bingo or something with her friends. The response of the librarian is to "keep an eye on her." Any book written nowadays, that child would be in foster care faster than you can blink!

Matilda's parents are absolutely horrible, and they aren't very nice to her either. She devises clever ways to get back at them for the way they treat her, although I noticed it's mainly her father who gets the pranks pulled on him. Then Matilda goes to school where first of all, she's learning her times tables in kindergarten (was that a thing?) but she meets the headmistriss, Miss Trunchbull, who abuses the students and teachers in her school in a way that would never in a million years be tolerated in a real school.

I never read this as a kid, so I'm just responding to it as an adult and honestly I thought it was a bit over the top. But kids will probably still like it for years to come because the heroine is a child overcoming those crazy adults.