Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Matilda





Matilda is five and a half years old. She can already do double digit multiplication and read Dickens. Her teacher loves her, and she has lots of friends at school. Her main problem is her self centred parents who do not want her to learn and her nightmare principal Trunchbull.  She must use all her intelligence and patience to deal with them, and get the best revenge.

Matilda is a funny story about a smart girl who wants to learn and make friends. She faces a lot of challenges, but finds smart and funny ways to overcome the obstacles in her life(which are often her family and principal). I enjoyed reading about the silly ways Matilda thought of to get revenge. I liked that she used her imagination to get the job done.

I had never read this book before, but had always heard great things about it. I saw a movie version when I was a kid, but never got around to reading the book. I was excited to have the Bookworms read it together. Even as an adult reading this book for the first time, I enjoyed it. Matilda is an easy character to identify with. She is smart, funny, and her desire for revenge makes her very human. I think this is a great book for young readers. They learn some great lessons, but they are all given in a fun relatable way.

This was the seventeenth book the Bookworms read together. We are all big readers, so we could relate to Matilda always wanting to read. We had fun talking about different topics such as: reading, learning, family, Matilda's revenge--funny or cruel?, and bullying. Here are some of the Bookworms' thoughts on the book. Warning! There may be some spoilers.

Q&A With The Bookworms Book Club

How Many stars out of 5 would you give Matilda?
Alejandro 4 1/2
Paige 4

What was your favourite part of the book?
Alejandro When the chalk started floating and wrote on the board.
Paige When Matilda came back from the library with a wagon full of books.

Who was your favourite character?
Paige Matilda because she was funny.
Alejandro Miss Honey and Trunchbull. Miss Honey is a really nice teacher and Trunchbull has a lot of pranks done on her.

What did you think of the character Matilda?
Alejandro I thought she was a little odd sometimes.
Paige She was funny.

What were her parents like?
Paige They were mean.
Alejandro Yes, very mean.

What did you think about Matilda getting revenge and "disciplining" her parents?
Paige It was funny that the kid was the one doing the disciplining.
Alejandro It was funny and interesting to see the kid doing that.

What was your favourite prank/punishment?
Alejandro I liked the ghost with the parrot.
Paige All the money cheated.

Would you have stayed with Miss Honey or gone with your family?
Alejandro I would have gone with my parents, but NOT Matilda's.
Paige I would have gone with Miss Honey. Her parents are mead.

What did you do if you had some of Matilda's powers?
Alejandro It might be fun to freak my parents out by doing weird things. I would levitate.
Paige Whenever I was mad I would trick them like Matilda moving the chalk.

Would you be happy or sad to lose your powers?
Paige Both. Sad they were gone because it would be fun. Happy because they were gone and wouldn't get caught and examined.
Alejandro Happy probably. I would have to figure it out.

Thank you to the Bookworms for reading and reviewing this book with me. I look forward to our next book!