BOOK REPORT

IN ENGLISH 8

Name : Lexie B. Fernandez

Grade & Section : 8-DAHLIA
Teacher : Maam Estrella F.
Matatquin
 Title of the Book:

Author of the Book: Roald Dahl

Date Published: PlaceOctober

of 1, 1988

Publication: Published United Kingdom

by: Jonathan Cape

 SETTINGS
• Crunchem Hall Primary School - This is where
most of the important events in the story happened.
The school is nothing extravagant but a common
school with students.

• Ms. Honey's Cottage - It is a small green gate half- buried in

the hedge on the right and almost hidden by the overhanging
hazel branches. It is so small that it almost looked like a doll
house. The bricks were old and crumbly and very pale red Ithas
a grey slate roof and one small chimney and there were two
little windows in front." Inside there were no bed, appliances, or
even the bathroom.

• The Wormwood's Residence - "They own a nice

house with three bedrooms upstairs, while on the
ground floor there was a dining- room, a living room
and a kitchen." This shows that the Wormwoods are
not poor.
 CHARACTERS
• MATILDA An extraordinarily gifted five-year-old girl who is
the book’s protagonist. Matilda lives with her parents, Mr. and
Mrs. Wormwood, and older brother Michael. She is good at
reading and math and is strikingly unassuming and humble given
her brilliance. She has a strong moral code and is acutely attuned
to right versus wrong and the injustice of being accused of
something she hasn’t done.

• MISS HONEY Matilda’s teacher. Her students love and adore

her. Miss Honey recognizes Matilda’s brilliance. She becomes
Matilda’s ally, and advocates for Matilda when she visits the
Wormwoods’ home. She tells the story of her childhood to
Matilda, Miss Honey convincermwoods that she will care for
Matilda as her own child.

• MISS TRUNCHBULL The headmistress of the school.

She is a physically imposing woman, violent, and cruel.
Her educational philosophy is one based on punishment
rather than reward.
 CHARACTERS
• MR.WORMWOOD Matilda’s father and a crooked used-
car salesman. He is cruel toward Matilda and considers her
“nothing more than a scab,” to be picked and flung away.
Matilda’s brilliance serves to spotlight his own stupidity.
Her honesty and sense of fairness highlight his crookedness
and dishonesty.

• LAVENDER Matilda’s classmate and friend. She

is brave and develops a rebellious spirit like Matilda
and Hortensia, a senior class student.

• MRS.PHELPS The librarian who initially encourages

Matilda to read children’s books. She eventually
recognizes Matilda’s ability, sets her up with a library
card, and recommends adult books for her to read,
beginning with Great Expectations.
 CHARACTER
S
• MRS.WORMWOOD Matilda’s mother. She fails to
recognize Matilda’s brilliance, and is more interested in
playing Bingo every afternoon, heating up TV dinners
for her family, and watching television. She laughs with
Matilda and ridicules her husband in the hair dye scene
without realizing it was Matilda’s prank.

• MICHAEL WORMWOOD Matilda’s older

brother. Though older than Matilda, he is not
nearly as bright. His father wants him to take over
the used car business one day.
 CHARACTERS
•HORNTENSIA A senior girl at the school. She
tells Lavender and Matilda stories about Miss
Trunchbull and, with the other students, tries to
stand up against the headmistress’s cruelty to .

• BRUCE BOGTROTTER An overweight boy in

Matilda’s class who becomes the object of Miss
Trunchbull’s cruelty. When Miss Trunchbull wants
to force him to eat a whole cake, believing that he
can’t, he proves her wrong. After he finishes the
cake and the class explodes in celebration, Miss
Trunchbull explodes in rage. He is a hero for
standing up to her.
 BODY
Matilda Wormwood is a gifted girl with unpleasant parents. From a
young age she can speak like an adult. Since her parents don’t pay
much attention to her, Matilda teaches herself to read. Before she has
even been to elementary school, she has already read many books in
the local library. She spends her afternoons at the library where a
friendly librarian helps Matilda choose classic novels. Matilda’s
parents think she should read less and watch more television.

Matilda’s father, Mr. Wormwood, is a dishonest car salesman. He uses

several illegal tactics to trick people into buying cars that are complete
junk. He regularly tries to prepare Matilda’s brother, Michael, to
follow him into the car salesman business. Matilda tells her father that
he is dishonest, but it only makes him mad.

Matilda decides to punish her parents for the way they treat her. She
hopes that it will make them less selfish and mean. She tricks her
father into gluing his hat to his head, borrows a neighbor’s parrot to
convince the family that there is a ghost in the dining room, and swaps
her father’s hair tonic for dye that bleaches his hair. None of these
pranks have a lasting effect on her parents, but they help train Matilda
to deal with bullies.
 BODY
When Matilda is old enough to go to school, she finally meets an adult who
cares about her future. Her teacher, Miss Honey, is thoughtful and
understanding. She quickly notices that Matilda is very smart. Miss Honey
tries to get Matilda moved to a higher grade, since she can read and write
better than children several years older. Miss Honey is unsuccessful
because the Headmistress of the school, Miss Trunchbull, refuses and
believes Miss Honey is just trying to get rid of Matilda.

Miss Trunchbull is mean and abusive to students. She grabs a student by her hair
and throws the girl over a fence, just because Miss Trunchbull does not like the
girl’s pigtails. She also forces a student to eat an entire cake in front of all the
students, hoping that it will make him sick. Matilda wants to punish Miss
Trunchbull for being a bully. Matilda and another girl in her class, Lavender,
become friends. Lavender is also rebellious and wants to punish Miss Trunchbull.

When Miss Trunchbull comes to teach Matilda’s class, she is mean to the
students and even Miss Honey, who tries to defend the students. Lavender puts a
newt into Miss Trunchbull’s water jug, causing her to scream and jump back.
While Miss Trunchbull is yelling at the students, Matilda stares at the glass that
holds the newt and uses her mind to knock it over onto Miss Trunchbull. Matilda
speaks with Miss Honey about what she has done. Miss Honey has Matilda push
the glass over using her mind again and is amazed at Matilda’s power. They go to
Miss Honey’s small home to have tea and discuss Matilda’s powers.
 BOD
Y
Matilda notices that Miss Honey is very poor and asks her why she cannot
afford a nicer home or proper furniture. Miss Honey tells her that she was
raised by a very mean aunt who took her father’s home and keeps almost
all of Miss Honey’s money when she gets paid by the school. This makes
Matilda upset, since Miss Honey has been so nice to her, and Matilda does
not like bullies. Miss Honey then reveals that her aunt is Miss Trunchbull.

Matilda spends the next week practicing her mind powers and comes up with a
plan. While Miss Trunchbull is teaching her class, Matilda lifts a piece of chalk
and writes a message on the blackboard, making it seem as if the message is
from the ghost of Miss Honey’s father. Miss Trunchbull faints. After she
recovers, she leaves town. Miss Honey receives a letter with her father’s will
that Miss Trunchbull had kept from Miss Honey. She gets ownership of her
father’s house and savings account. Matilda visits Miss Honey at her new
house and they grow their friendship. Matilda also gets moved into a much
higher grade at school and loses her mental powers, since she now has
schoolwork that challenges her mind.

Matilda returns home one day to find her family frantically packing the car.
Her father tells Matilda that they are moving to Spain and not coming back.
Matilda runs to Miss Honey, who tells Matilda that her father is in business
with criminals, and it was only a matter of time before he would flee the
country. Matilda brings Miss Honey back to her house and asks her father if
she can stay behind and live with Miss Honey. Matilda’s father agrees and the
family leaves her behind.
 MORAL OF THE
STORY
Matilda is a show to give you the strength to stand up for yourself, no
matter what sort of abuse you are under. She
goes through an ordeal of verbal abuse at home and heads to a world of
verbal and physical abuse in school. I find that the reason she did not find
school scary and actually could stand up to it was only because she had
built a thick skin where
there was likely to be little in life that could put her down.

Now, it is a scary thought to think a 6 year old can have such a history that
can make someone like Ms Trunchbull be a normal human being, true. But
it is a glimpse of hope to think that sometimes you can still come out of
such a situation with a positive – the ability to stand up for yourself, after
so many years of being dragged in the dust. I was stunned by the lack of
fear but thought it was realistic enough in light of the background.

And the act of being fearless gave Matilda an edge in being able to stand up
for herself and for others, And the most important moral of the book is that
being unique is a good thing. As people are often thought of as outcasts if
they are a little different than others, the lesson is that differences should be
both appreciated and celebrated.