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Swaroop's comment reminded me how nostalgic this book is. When I was in Grade 2, which was eons ago, my library teacher would read Esio Trot to us in a dramatic, West-End tier performance voice and we would squeal with excitement. It's actually a sweet story, since you seldom read about an older couple finding love. Especially when a turtle is the plot device
In short: bumping this up to 4 stars because of nostalgia. Why? Because I can.
In short: bumping this up to 4 stars because of nostalgia. Why? Because I can.

funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I remember reading this as a child and enjoying it enough to give it a 4*. Read it again and it's still a lovely easy read with a typically absurd Dahl premise, though I'm more conscious now of how sketchy Mr Hoppy is - can't say it made a significant dent on my childhood morals so happy to leave that rating as is
The more me and the kiddo think and talk about this book, the more we are bothered by it. In her words, Mr. Hoppy broke some classroom rules!
How have I never read this before? It's a lot of fun, as you'd expect, and teaches high value males how to attract hot women through the simple technique of buying hundreds of tortoises and constructing a simple device for exchanging them from an upper storey balcony. If Mr Hoppy were real, he would be running a dating strategy youtube channel and making a pile of cash.
I hate to give Roald Dahl anything less than five stars but this story is problematic as f*ck.
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Cutesy romance. Have to admit, slightly creepy method of winning someone's heart.
BOOOOOOO
i am boo-ing this book. no just no.
mr hoppy is meant to be your shy "nice guy" protagonist but no ! he's manipulative and he's down hoRRENDOUS for mrs silver
exhibit a:
"your slave for life, he kept repeating to himself. what a bliss!"
that's all you need. that is ALL the information you need to tell you "hey, this guy sucks."
fine exhibit b: he forms a whole elaborate scheme which involves stealing alfie (mrs silver's tortoise), replacing them with MULTIPLE TORTI (keeping them in bad living conditions with insufficient care) in order to trick mrs silver into marrying him. IT WORKS BY THE WAY. i do not care if this is a spoiler. do not read this unless you want to learn/establish what a bad children's book looks like. a bad book.
the only good characters in this are alfie, all the tortoises and roberta's family.
okay fine i spoiler marked it
my list is:
┍━━━━━━━☟━━━━━━━┑
1. The Magic Finger
2. Fantastic Mr Fox
3. Esio Trot
┕━━━━━━━☝︎ ━━━━━━━┙
i am boo-ing this book. no just no.
mr hoppy is meant to be your shy "nice guy" protagonist but no ! he's manipulative and he's down hoRRENDOUS for mrs silver
exhibit a:
"your slave for life, he kept repeating to himself. what a bliss!"
that's all you need. that is ALL the information you need to tell you "hey, this guy sucks."
fine exhibit b: he forms a whole elaborate scheme which involves stealing alfie (mrs silver's tortoise), replacing them with MULTIPLE TORTI (keeping them in bad living conditions with insufficient care) in order to trick mrs silver into marrying him. IT WORKS BY THE WAY. i do not care if this is a spoiler. do not read this unless you want to learn/establish what a bad children's book looks like. a bad book.
the only good characters in this are alfie, all the tortoises and roberta's family.
okay fine i spoiler marked it
my list is:
┍━━━━━━━☟━━━━━━━┑
1. The Magic Finger
2. Fantastic Mr Fox
3. Esio Trot
┕━━━━━━━☝︎ ━━━━━━━┙