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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-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
nostalgic and perfect. love the grandma love the mice thanks roald!
There Came A Time In My Life Where I Did Not Have Any Good Books To Read ( I Mean I Was Reading Romeo And Juliet At 8 Years Old ) So But Anyway I Was Walking Into Library One Day Until I Saw This Book In The Children's Section And I Sat In One Of The Chairs And Read This Book
The Witches By Roald Dahl Is One Of The Best Children's Book I Have Ever Read And As An Adult I Still Love It And Always Will
I Cannot Wait To Watch The HBO Max Adaptation Of This Beloved Children's Book
With Anne Hathaway And Octavia Spencer And Chris Rock It's Gonna Be Great
The Witches By Roald Dahl Is One Of The Best Children's Book I Have Ever Read And As An Adult I Still Love It And Always Will
I Cannot Wait To Watch The HBO Max Adaptation Of This Beloved Children's Book
With Anne Hathaway And Octavia Spencer And Chris Rock It's Gonna Be Great
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a freaky book. I love Roald Dahl and all, but this time he was a little over-the-top.
A gem. Dahl has magical powers. He doesn't hit every note, but he gets into a kind of patter, a rhythm that feels instinctually correct, bringing up the ideas and thoughts that a 7-to-12-year-old would think up.
The internal logic, consistency, subject matter, and problem-solving has a deep and wonderful "trueness" that reminds you of when you were that age. And along the way he throws out tiny little sparkles of language and imagery that astonish.
The Witches is important because fewer people know about it-- which makes it a better read, and an unsmuttered experience. James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or Matilda might actually be better books-- but they are so well-known, so well-chewed and displayed and turned into movies and so forth-- that Witches becomes the better book.
I haven't read Danny the Champion of the World since I was a child-- I should probably go back and try it. In my memory, Danny the Champion of the World takes Dahl's central conceit (most grown-ups are not actually good, they are the enemy) into deep and uncomfortable territory, creating a path to a kind of moral ambiguity (if the enemy suffers, that's okay, because they are bad) which is actually a lie.
Dahl touches this theme in all of his books, I think... and it works, insofar as that's how kids really feel a lot of the time, and mirrors how cruel and inconsiderate adults genuinely are-- (even the most sensitive of us seem categorically unable to remember what it is really like to be a child)-- but these truths don't make wrongs become right.
In the Witches, this theme is very strong, but somehow the shape and curve of the story makes it more of a fairy-tale (where it is okay to objectify and kill the enemy) and not reflective of real life (where it is not). The book has a delightfully non-traditional plot shape, and the (spoiler) persistent transformation of the main character is something rarely seen in books. He is going to be a mouse, and his goals and aims as a creature do not need to be higher-- he doesn't need to grow up. He can be amazing as a child. (Dahl: And that's good, because grown-ups are awful.)
The internal logic, consistency, subject matter, and problem-solving has a deep and wonderful "trueness" that reminds you of when you were that age. And along the way he throws out tiny little sparkles of language and imagery that astonish.
The Witches is important because fewer people know about it-- which makes it a better read, and an unsmuttered experience. James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or Matilda might actually be better books-- but they are so well-known, so well-chewed and displayed and turned into movies and so forth-- that Witches becomes the better book.
I haven't read Danny the Champion of the World since I was a child-- I should probably go back and try it. In my memory, Danny the Champion of the World takes Dahl's central conceit (most grown-ups are not actually good, they are the enemy) into deep and uncomfortable territory, creating a path to a kind of moral ambiguity (if the enemy suffers, that's okay, because they are bad) which is actually a lie.
Dahl touches this theme in all of his books, I think... and it works, insofar as that's how kids really feel a lot of the time, and mirrors how cruel and inconsiderate adults genuinely are-- (even the most sensitive of us seem categorically unable to remember what it is really like to be a child)-- but these truths don't make wrongs become right.
In the Witches, this theme is very strong, but somehow the shape and curve of the story makes it more of a fairy-tale (where it is okay to objectify and kill the enemy) and not reflective of real life (where it is not). The book has a delightfully non-traditional plot shape, and the (spoiler) persistent transformation of the main character is something rarely seen in books. He is going to be a mouse, and his goals and aims as a creature do not need to be higher-- he doesn't need to grow up. He can be amazing as a child. (Dahl: And that's good, because grown-ups are awful.)
A novel that I have read close to a 100 times in 22 year period, to this day it is one of my favorite books and the best Roald Dahl book. Matilda is a close second though ;)
The witches by Roald Dahl get a 10/10 stars.
The witches by Roald Dahl get a 10/10 stars.
dark
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
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
““My darling,’ she said at last, ‘are you sure you don't mind being a mouse for the rest of your life?’
‘I don't mind at all,’ I said. ‘It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.””
A children’s classic.
‘I don't mind at all,’ I said. ‘It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.””
A children’s classic.