MATILDA

Matilda is a story of a young girl who pretty much raises herself. Her father leaves early in the mornings to go to work, where he sales dirty-second-hand cars. Her mother leaves to play bingo in a nearby town, and her brother goes to school. Matilda learned to cook and care for herself. She loved to read; she read and memorized the cookbook they had in their house by heart. She soon would go down to the public library every day to read. Her parents never paid much attention to her and when they did they were mean and rude. One day Matilda got the idea, from a book that she needed to punish her parents for treating her the way they did. Since her dad was a crook, Matilda put super glue in his hat one day, and her mother had to cut it off of him, hair and all. She also went next door and got a talking parrot, from the little boy that lived there, and hid it in the chimney. When her parents came home that evening and it started talking Matilda told them it must have been a ghost and their house must be haunted. This frightened her parents very much and they were kinder to Matilda for a while. One day Matilda's dad, Mr. Wormwood, came home from work and gave her brother some sums to work in order to figure out the profit he had mad that day. Matilda gave him the answer and he told her she was a liar and a cheat; he thought she saw the paper in his hand. The next morning Matilda put some of her mother's hair dye in the bottle of oil that her father used every morning; this bleached his hair and he became very upset. When Matilda was five and a half she started school. Her teacher was Miss Honey and every child liked her very much. Miss Honey took a great notice to how intelligent Matilda was. When she tried to tell the Headmistress Miss Truchbull how intelligent Matilda was she told Miss Honey that her father thought she was a trouble maker and a cheat. The Miss Honey tried to inform Matilda's parents how smart she was and all they were concerned about was the TV program they were missing. Matilda was given permission by Miss Honey not to pay attention in class and was given other books to study. One day when Miss Trunchbull came to give her weekly lesson to Miss Honey's class, another student, named Lavender, put a newt in the pitcher of water that Miss Trunchbull drinks out of. Once Miss Trunchbull poured herself a glass and saw the newt in it she instantly blamed Matilda for it. Matilda was sitting at her desk the entire time and told Miss Trunchbull that she didn't do it. Then Matilda stared at the glass with her eyes and a power came over her. She told the glass to tip over and it did. Matilda explained what had happened to her after class that day and Matilda went to Miss Honey’s cottage after school for some tea. There Matilda learned about Miss Honey’s horrible past and discussed with her more what she thought she could do with her powers. One her way back to her house that evening she began to come up with a plan. She practiced her powers every day after school with a cigar of her father’s until she could manipulate it however she wanted. The next week when Miss Trunchbull came to teach the class their lesson, Matilda made the chalk move and wrote Miss Trunchbull's first name on the board. Upon seeing this Miss Trunchbull became scared and asked who was making the chalk move. The chalk then wrote on the board the name of her dead brother, Miss Honey’s father, and told her to give the house back to Miss Honey and to leave town. That is exactly what Miss Truchbull did. One day after school, Matilda left Miss Honey's to go back home, when she got there her parents were packing everything they could. Matilda's father told her they were leaving for Spain in thirty minutes. Matilda ran back to Miss Honey's house to tell her the terrible news and that she did not want to go to Spain she wanted to live with Miss Honey. Miss Honey told her she would love that but she must have her parents’ permission to live there. They ran back to Matilda's and Matilda's parents told her that was fine as long as they didn't miss their plane. So Matilda moved in with Miss Honey in the house that Miss Honey grew up in.

This story shows how much children are capable of. They are much smarter than many people think they are. They can learn a lot if they are challenged to do so. It also shows the child's imagination, Matilda thinks her father needs to be punished because she read things in books. Books also open up a child's imagination to many new ideas. It also shows parents that they need to spend quality time, being productive, with their children. Parents also must learn that children do not always make up horrible stories about school; sometimes horrible things really do happen. Parents must be able to decide what is true or not so that something can be done about the problems.