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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
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!
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
┕━━━━━━━☝︎ ━━━━━━━┙
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This was a sweet little short story. I think I read it in about 10 minutes - perfect for bedtime whimsy. Some might have problems with the "lying to get what you want in a relationship" aspect of this, but I think children will think the premise is just clever and silly. Would recommend for ages 4-6.
A fun re-read, but the "love story" is a bit questionable