Book Report By Katherine Ku

Title: Matilda
Author: Roald Dahl
Why did you choose this book?
I chose this book because it is
amusing and magical and I love
Roald Dahl’s stories.
What is this book about?
This book is about an extraordinary little girl who has really
horrible parents. Her name is Matilda and she was extremely
clever. When she was one and a half, she could speak
perfectly and knew the same amount of words as most
adults.
When she was four, she would go to the library every
weekday when her brother, mother and father go out. After a
few weeks, she had read all of the children’s books.
Her father, Mr Wormwood was a second-hand car dealer
who sold cars in really dishonest ways. He would put
sawdust into the gearboxes of worn-out old cars, making
them run smoothly for a few miles only. Mr Wormwood does
that and other dishonest things to his cars before selling
them for high prices.
Mr Wormwood was always very mean to Matilda and only
cared about his older son because Matilda’s brother would
take over the car business. Matilda had just quite enough of
her father.
The next morning, just before her father
went to work, she took the hat he wore
everyday and squeezed glue on the brim.
At first, Mr Wormwood didn’t even notice
anything when he put it on, but when he tried to take it off,
he couldn’t. He still had that hat on even when he went to
sleep that day. When her father makes her angry, Matilda
finds a way to make him pay the price.
Matilda was a little late in starting school because her
parents didn’t see education as a very important thing. Her
school was called Crunchem Hall Primary
school, the head teacher was called Miss
Trunchbull, the students call her “the Trunch”,
she was the most horrible teacher you will
ever see, and she hits children. Thankfully,
Matilda’s class teacher was something else
altogether. Her name was Miss Honey, she never raised her
voice and possessed the rare gift of being adored by every
small child under her care.
Miss Honey had just started the lesson
and asked Matilda to recite it. When she
got to twice sixteen, Miss Honey told her
to stop. She was quite spellbound after
listening to Matilda’s smooth recital, so
she asked her to try some more difficult
sums and amazingly, she answered them
correctly and without hesitating. Miss Honey also found out
that Matilda could also read extremely hard words and
understand most of the meanings.
Every two weeks, Miss Trunchbull would go to a different
class to supervise the children. This week she went to
Matilda’s class. First she tested them on the two-times
tables. She asked a boy who’s name was Rupert what was the
answer of two sevens and foolishly, he replied ‘eighteen’ and
Miss Trunchbull lifted him up by his long golden hair until he
said two sevens were fourteen.
 After that, she went to get a drink of water from a jug. But a
girl called Lavender had put a newt into her water. It gave
her such a fright! She thought it
had to be Matilda because of her
bad experience with Matilda’s
father’s second–handcars. She at
once excused Matilda of putting a
“crocodile” in her drinking water. Although Matilda hated
and loathed her very much, she would never do something
so horrible to a teacher. Matilda was very angry at Miss
Trunchbull for accusing her of that. She sat there, in her seat,
while glaring at the cup very hard. The newt seemed so
uncomfortable in the small cup, she kept shouting in her
mind, Tip it! And it tipped over, strait onto Miss Trunchbull’s
enormous bossom. She roared with anger, and left the class.
When she left, Matilda got up and walked up to Miss Honey
and confessed that she was the one who poured the water
onto Miss Trunchbull. She tipped the cup again to show Miss
Honey that she wasn’t lying. Miss Honey invited Matilda to
go to her house and have a chat.
They went to Miss Honey’s cottage and talked about
Matilda’s amazing powers. Matilda also found out that Miss
Trunchbull was Miss Honey’s
aunt and she had taken all of Miss
Honey’s possessions when Miss
Honey’s father died, and as if that
wasn’t enough, she even directed
all of Miss Honey’s pay from
work to be all sent directly into her bank. And then she asked
Miss Honey some very weird and particular questions like
‘What did your father call you?’ ‘Jenny.’
The next day, Matilda went to school as usual and Miss
Trunchbull visited their class yet again. Matilda then made a
chalk write by itself on the blackboard ‘Agatha, this is Magus.
Give my Jenny back her house. Give my Jenny her wages.
Then get out of here. If you don’t, I will get you, I will get you
like you got me.’ And the chalk hovered for a moment and it
dropped onto the floor Miss Trunchbull fainted and fell onto
the floor. Miss Trunchbull gave Miss Honey back her house
and left town as quick as she could. In the end Matilda’s
family moved to Spain and Matilda stayed with Miss Honey.
What did you like/dislike about the book?
I thought the plot was amazing! I was terrified when I read
about Rupert getting lifted up by his hair. I imagine that Miss
Trunchbull haunts children’s dreams once in a while. If I was
able to judge this book, I would write ‘the plot thickens while
you read about the tales of Matilda, a book that you cannot
put down until you see what happens next.’
Who is your favorite/least favorite character? Why?
My favorite character is Matilda because she is smart and
loves reading, I also a huge bookworm and there is nothing I
like to do more then snuggle in a warm blanket and have a
hot drink with me while reading. My least favorite character
is Miss Trunchbull because she is cruel, selfish and horrible.
She calls everyone a brat while she is the worse of them all.
She will never understand that it is illegal to hit people.
What would you do if you were the characters?
If I were Matilda’s parents, I would be nicer to their
children. And if I were her father in particular, I wouldn’t be
a crook and I would try to sell good cars, or at least mend
cars in better ways so I wouldn’t endanger the life of others.
If I were Miss Trunchbull, I would turn Crunchem Hall into a
heaven for children to let them have more fun and to let
them love learning. My Crunchem Hall would have colorful
walls, different and new interesting subjects, more facilities
such as monkey bars, swimming pools, a small touching and
learning center with animals and exciting cultural trips
abroad.