Matilda

Matilda

By: Roald Dahl

Summary

Matilda was born into a family where her parents cared little about her. She had to learn things on her own, and do everything by herself. She did not like the way her family lived their lives. She was much different from them. She showed many signs of being a genius, which was much different than her parent. They would try to get her to just watch T.V., but Matilda wanted to read. She started going to the library everyday when everybody would leave the house. It wasn't long before she had every book in the whole library read. Her father told her, "Every person should be punished for what they do." So she decided that she could "punish" her parents. She starts playing tricks on her parents and soon realizes she has special "magical" powers. At first she struggles to use them, but she gets a hang of them and uses them for good things sometimes, and bad things sometimes.

Matilda is then allowed to go to school. There she has an evil headmistress, Ms. Trunchbull. Ms. Trunchbull is a bad, mean lady. She believes in intimidating her students to get the to behave. She has all different types of punishments. Today we would call these sort of things child abuse and definitely would not be allowed in schools.

Matilda also has a very nice teacher, Ms. Honey. Ms. Honey is the first one to see Matilda's powers. One day Ms. Honey takes Matilda to her house and they become very close. Matilda admits to Ms. Honey about her powers and tells her she is confused about them and doesn't know why she has them. Ms. Honey keeps the powers a secret and helps Matilda with her family life throughout the story. Matilda realizes that Ms. Honey is very poor. Ms. Honey tells Matilda a long story about how her dad was rich, then her father dies and she is forced to live with her evil step-mom. Her step-mom does not treat her well at all, she basically makes Matilda her slave. Ms. Honey's stepmother turns out to be Ms. Trunchbull. This makes Matilda determined to get Ms. Honey back what is hers, her father's house.

Matilda's best friend is Lavender. She is a sweet little girl. Her and Matilda get along very well and have a lot of fun together. Matilda also makes friends with many of her other classmates. Matilda, however, feels out of place sometimes because she is so much more mature and smarter than the other kids in her class.

Soon Ms. Trunchbull is suspicious of the way Ms. Honey is running