Matilda by Roald Dahl
Published by The Penguin Group, 2001
ISBN 0-14-131136-3
Illustrations © Quentin Blake, 1988


Matilda is a truly extraordinary girl. She lives with her family but they look on her as a pest, someone who is more trouble than she is worth. Neither her father, Mr Wormwood – the crooked car dealer whose main pleasure in life is watching telly – or her mother, who is hooked on playing bingo every afternoon, have any time for books. Books are Matilda’s reason for being.

When Matilda, aged four years and three months, starts school she makes friends for the first time in her life. She loves Miss Honey, her teacher, but Miss Trunchbull, the school principal, hates children and is horrible to all of them. Matilda decides to use her extraordinary gift to help Miss Honey get back her house and money from Miss Trunchbull.

The story of Matilda and her teacher, their hard childhoods and their triumph over their bullying, uncaring families is a real Roald Dahl classic and is both a sad and funny read.

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