Roald Dahl

Peirce and I recently finished Matilda by Roald Dahl. We also listened to Witches during some recent travel time in the car.

I just have get this off my chest first: Roald Dahl was a disturbed man!! You get glimpses of it in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when you see how not bothered Willy Wonka is by the bad things that happen to children...after all, they deserve it since they're so nasty! It gets a little worse in these two books though.

There were a lot of things about these stories that were bothersome to me. Matilda's parents were idiots and her school principal was a tyrant. She children find ways to survive....but should kids have to do that? (Perhaps it bothered me because so many do.) I could hardly stand to read it. Peirce would often comment that he didn't like her parents and he didn't like Miss Trunchbull, the principal. He wasn't good at putting the words together - but I understand what he was saying. There was something disturbing about these people. The story does turn around though and give hope to a kid with the help Matilda receives from her dear kind hearted teacher, Miss Honey, as well as the powers that Matilda discovers she has. And you have to admire Matilda for the smart, humble, voracious reader she is! All in all we enjoyed the way the book ended....but I think we're finished reading Roald Dahl out loud for a while.

So we've turned to books on CD! Not sure that's exactly a better idea with Roald Dahl. Peirce listened to Witches next. This book is full of wild imaginative tales about witches. Dahl tells the reader what to look for to identify a witch and finishes off by telling you that witches look just like regular ladies - it might be your Sunday School teacher, your kindergarten teacher, the nice lady next door, or some nice lady in a store. Talk about a way to instill fear in children! Somehow though Peirce continued to be glued to the story. He talked for days about watching for witches. Made me wonder what kind of damage I'm doing to my child with these stories!

I think that next we'll move on to something a little more time.....A Mouse Called Wolf sounds like a nice changeHe's just a nice little mouse that loves music and gets into typical mouse trouble. That sounds a little better!!