Matilda

Title: Matilda
Author: Roald Dahl
Genre: Modern Fantasy (chapter book)

Matilda is the heroic story of a gifted young girl who overcomes a lazy and morally crooked family as well as a sinister bully of a school principal. The story begins with an introduction of how Matilda Wormwood's parents and brother never appreciated her. Matilda taught herself to read at a very young age, and soon began to intellectually consume every book she could get her hands on, despite her parent's protests. When it was time for Matilda to start school, she was overwhelmed with excitement. However, her excitement soon faded when she realized that the principal to her school, Ms. Agatha Trunchbull, was a vindictive and cruel person who hated children more than anything. Though Ms. Trunchbull made school horrible, it was Matilda's warm and kind teacher Ms. Honey as well as a few close friends that made Matilda's school experience enriching and enjoyable. While Matilda endures a slew of tormenting experiences from her family and "The Trunchbull", she discovers that she has a unique ability to move things with her mind. Matilda realizes that she can use this ability to justify the injustices that have been brought upon her, she embarks on a series of tricks to those who have wronged her and her friends. When Ms. Honey reveals to Matilda that Ms. Trunchbull is her horrible aunt who may have killed her own brother, Matilda vows to find a way to right this wrong. After a series of investigations and planning, Matilda eventually drives Ms. Trunchbull out of the school, and Ms. Honey is made principal. When Matilda's family encounters legal troubles, they plan to flee the country. Ms. Honey offers to adopt Matilda, and they live happily ever after. So happily in fact, that Matilda lost her powers as she no longer had any more anger to create them.

This was, and still is, one of my absolute favorite books for children. I believe that Matilda is a heroic tale of a sweet and clever girl triumphing over evil and ultimately saving the day. Matilda is another example of a book in which character traits abound- a fitting lesson for student's would be to elaborate on the character traits of all the main characters involved in the plot.