Promotional Information

The moving and uplifting story of triumph against impressive villainy.

About the Author

The son of Norwegian parents, Roald Dahl was born in Wales in 1916 and educated at Repton. He was a fighter pilot for the RAF during World War Two, and it was while writing about his experiences during this time that he started his career as an author. His fabulously popular children's books are read by children all over the world. He died in November 1990. Quentin Blake is well known as Roald Dahl's principal illustrator but has also written and illustrated a great many picture books of his own, such as Mister Magnolia and Zagazoo. He was appointed the first Children's Laureate in 1999.

Reviews

"The undisputed master-storyteller ... Artful, funny, profoundly inventive and touched with the blessed knowledge of how to tap the basest in a child's nature and lead it towards the best" Daily Mail "Roald Dahl invented a new kind of literature for children full of the awful and gross - an exagerration of the everyday underpinned by serious observations about our best and worst inclinations" Waterstones Books Quarterly

Matilda is an extraordinarily gifted four-year-old whose parentsa crass, dishonest used-car dealer and a self-centered, blowsy bingo addictregard her as ``nothing more than a scab.'' Life with her beastly parents is bearable only because Matilda teaches herself to read, finds the public library, and discovers literature. Also, Matilda loves using her lively intelligence to perpetrate daring acts of revenge on her father. This pastime she further develops when she enrolls in Crunchem Hall Primary School, whose headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, is ``a fierce tyrannical monster . . . .'' Adults may cringe at Dahl's excesses in describing the cruel Miss Trunchbull, as well as his reliance on overextended characterization at the expense of plot development. Children, however, with their keenly developed sense of justice, will relish the absolutes of stupidity, greed, evil and might versus intelligence, courage and goodness. They also will sail happily through the contrived, implausible ending. Dahl's phenomenal popularity among children speaks for his breathless storytelling charms; his fans won't be disappointed by Matilda. Blake's droll pen-and-ink sketches extend the exaggerated humor. Ages 9-11. (Oct.)