Matilda
1988
- juvenile fiction
- schools
- girls
- spanish language
- translations from english
- fiction
- humorous stories
- écoles
- romans, nouvelles, etc. pour la jeunesse
- filles
The story
Matilda applies her untapped mental powers to rid the school of the evil, child-hating headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, and restore her nice teacher, Miss Honey, to financial security.
What it’s like
Brisk, bright prose with a wry, conspiratorial narrator who talks straight to the reader, so the voice feels like a grown-up leaning in to share a secret. Chapters are short and punchy, full of comic exaggeration, sharp little jokes and gleefully grotesque adult characters set against the quiet, bookish world of a small suburban house full of library books and a child's private inner life. The sensory palette leans on the vivid and the absurd: sticky sweets, chalky classrooms, a headmistress who looms like a storm front, and the satisfying clatter of pranks and small justices. It is a cosy, mischievous read with a warm undercurrent of loneliness that lifts into triumph, the kind that suits a rainy afternoon, a sick-day sofa, or a read-aloud at bedtime. Intensity is mild: there is harsh discipline and cruelty toward children, told with comic distance, and no gore or sexual content, though a few scenes of frightening adult menace may sit uneasily with very sensitive young readers. Best for readers who love witty, mischievous children's fiction and gentle revenge stories with a warm heart.
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