Matilda
Ratings603
Average rating4.3
Matilda is a precocious 4 year old, daughter of Mr & Mrs Wormwood. Her gormless parents are completely blind to the genius of their child, chosing to heckle her for not wanting to watch TV at dinner like the rest of them.
Matilda soon discovered books. In a short span of time and with the help of a motherly librarian, she went through all the classics. At some point, she solved a mathametical problem for her ungrateful father, who then accused her of so much untruths that she extracted her revenge in her own subtle ways.
Eventually, Matilda had to go to school. The headmistress is a Miss Trunchbull, who is every bit as awful as her name suggests. She has a distain for children in general, and Matilda became an immediate target. It didn't help when Miss Honey, Matilda's teacher, recommended that she be moved to a more advanced class.
The stress caused by Miss Trunchbull leads Matilda to discover a special power and she uses it to correct a wrong revealed to her by Miss Honey.
It was fun to revisit this book after so many years. Matilda is a great story about thirst of knowledge and taking matters into your own hands, no matter your age or the assumptions people have about your capabilities. Matilda is a pretty impressive role model in context. She's independent and determined, and her intelligence doesn't prevent her from being down-to-earth and compassionate. I do prefer the movie to the book, though. The movie is just so good.
Story is more disjointed than other Dahl books. Feels like 3 short story pieces squashed together. Not my favorite Roald Dahl. But still a good read. The 7 year old enjoyed it.
I felt like I was Matilda (minus the whole terrible parent thing). This sparked my love of reading and taught me it was ok to be smart.
needed something fun and sweet between some of the darker lit i’ve been reading, couldn’t help but compare the book and the movie since i watched the movie recently. this is a children’s classic and i love the idea of matilda being a form of miss honey inner child and helping her overcome. solid lil book about overcoming abusive situations 💘
♥️ a childhood favorite - it really is so good though!! And I love how similar the movie adaptation is to this book
I loved seeing how they took the book and made such a wonderful movie. It was hard to read some of what Miss Trunchbull did.
This was so cozy and sweet and I'm so sad that I didn't read this as a child. Yet in a way, I was able to heal and reconnect with my younger self. It was smart with adult themes, and only felt juvenile in Miss Trunchbull's interactions with the kids. Any reader would enjoy this, and I'm glad I could appreciate it as an adult. Can't wait to see the screen adaptations for the first time!
Rating: 4.5 leaves out of 5Characters: 5/5 Cover: 3/5Story: 5/5Writing: 5/5Genre: Classic/ChildrenType: AudiobookWorth?: YESHated Disliked It Was Okay Liked Loved FavoritedWhat a cute book, honestly the movie (not musical) stayed pretty darn close to the book. Some things were changed from book to movie adaptation and it was kind of a shock. I love Matilda and am glad I got the chance to read it!
I loved the 1996 movie as a kid, but had never gotten around to reading the book! I enjoyed it immensely, the movie stuck pretty close to the source material, though some things were fleshed out a bit better for the movie. Also, what kindergartners are learning their times tables?! The Trunchbull was just as terrifying/hilarious as I remember. I know there's a new adaptation coming out, with Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull, and that will be interesting ... I'm not so sure how I feel about that, but my instinct is to tell myself to slow my roll and that she'll probably be great in it, despite some skepticism.
Another Roald Dahl book I read with my daughter, a chapter most night before (her) bedtime.
I enjoyed this one much more than James and the Giant Peach, George's Marvellous Medicine and a little better than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
My daughter also liked this one more, perhaps because she could see more of herself in Matilda than the boys, or perhaps just because she had been to see the stage production that visited our city a few months back (no, we didn't manage to borrow the book from the library and read it before the production!).
So to the story - well in spite of the book making Miss Honey look fairly pathetic, with a small child having to turn her life around, at least it was an exceptional girl who did it. Dahl specialises in children heroes who outwit bad adults, and have been unlucky with the parents/carers that they have been issued to, and this is no exception. Matilda's parents are unlikeable and very basic - well described and it is easy to sympathise with Matilda - classic setup whereby the reader must side with Matilda because her parents don't like books. There are loads of reviews which outline the plot, so I need not do that here.
The illustrations in this edition (Quentin Blake) are very good and capture the characters just as my imagination had them pictured from the text - they also broke up the large pages of text, which is sometimes needed nearing (her) bedtime.
Like the other books, I was surprised I hadn't read this as kid, but then I saw it was published in 1988, which surprised me, as I had the impression it was much older than this. However this would explain why I had moved on in my entertainment by this time!
4.5 stars, but not sure I can round it up to 5, so 4 it is.
I remember loving this as a child! I re-read it many times because of how much I loved it.
This child just wants to read and her environment sucks. Very relatable, she is just like me. Someone send her books. The characters are very lovable and this is wish fullfilment for anyone in a terrible situation and no access to people of reason.
I love how this promotes the love of reading and the classics. There's a good movie adapted from this book.
I love how this sorta suggests that to do magic you have to get smart.
This is a book with dark themes, but they are still appropriate for the age range.
Someone should adopt this kid.
A wonderful book by Roald Dahl. I don't understand how he finds ideas for his books and also for the comedy part.
I was laughing throughout the book. Its a quick read I guess.
Matilda is a wonderful girl with extraordinary capabilities compared to her age. She reads a lot and is extremely good at maths. She also has a power where she can move, lift, push or pull objects with her eyes.
She is not very self conscious.
I must say I really liked the story.
I feel a bit embarrassed that being a bookworm in my 30's I had not read Matilda until now. I saw the movie AGES ago and last year my mom and I saw a theatrical version, which I loved WAY more than the movie and which absolutely charmed me, and STiLL I hadn't read this Roald Dahl Classic until this week. Now seemed the time though, while the pandemic rages and it's hard to feel positive and hopeful, a light-hearted book about a smart little girl with a fondness for books and a big heart is a great antidote. It's silly and strange and yet manages to be charming because Matilda lets her big heart guide her through it all. I think it was just a fun read and especially endearing to those of us who love books and want to see children love them as much. It might not have a whole lot of depth, that's not to say there isn't a thing or two to learn from it, but it does manage to charm you.
Matilda es un bonito libro infantil de una ninya con una inteligencia muy superior a los ninyos de su edad.
Me ha gustado mucho el argumento y la forma de escribir del autor.
A Matilda le he cogido mucho carinyo, pero en general la descripción de todos los personajes está muy conseguida y define perfectamente las características de cada uno.
La primera parte del libro nos explica cómo es la vida de Matilda y se va descubriendo su inteligencia fuera de lo normal.
Solo en la segunda parte del libro se descubre la telequinesis, que además utiliza en contadas ocasiones. No recuerdo bien la película (la vi hace mucho tiempo!) pero acabo de ver el trailer y parece que la película es muy diferente al libro.
A mi personalmente me ha gustado las dosis limitadas de telequinesis que tenemos en el libro.
En mi opinión lo convierte en algo todavía más especial.
Con un final un tanto surrealista (como todo lo que rodea al comportamiento de los padres de Matilda) pero satisfactorio.
Pasa a mi lista de favoritos y me deja con ganas de leer más libros de Roald Dahl!
I really enjoyed this one. It's actually one of the only book-adaptation movies that I think is a bit better than the book. There were some differences between the two, and it was interesting to see that.
No voy a explayarme dando una explicación de qué trata Matilda cuando ya todos lo conocemos, ¿no? Va sobre una niña con grandes habilidades intelectuales y mentales, a la que sus padres apenas dan atención y cuando comienza a estudiar, se topa con una terrible directora y una dulce maestra. Aquí voy a tocar las leves diferencias entre la adaptación cinematográfica y la novela, así del cómo me parecieron los personajes en su contexto original.
Primero que nada, tocaré el punto de que la Matilda la sentí más analítica, más calculadora y... fría, por así decirlo, no dudando en castigar a sus padres si lo merecían. Yo no sé los demás, pero ella me pareció muy distinta. Y eso me gustó, mucho, cabe destacar que le tomé bastante cariño. Algo que también adoré es que en la novela describen lo que sentía Matilda al hacer uso de sus poderes mentales, cada vez que movía algo con la mente o lo elevaba; era algo impresionante.
Tocando brevemente la película, la adaptación toca casi todos los escenarios de la novela, lo cual me sorprendió. Hay diálogos que el director Danny DeVito conservó en su totalidad de la novela. Mientras leía, era como ver exactamente la adaptación, lo cual me facilitó para terminar rápido el libro.
Fue una buena lectura, es lo que tengo que decir.
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