Name of the book: Matilda

The 22nd Annual Book Report Competition for Secondary School Students Class: 4D Student: Siu Wing Oi Name of the book: Matilda Author: Roald Dahl Publisher: Jonathan Cape Matilda Wormwood was a child. However, Matilda’s parents did not like her when she was born because they liked boys more than girls. Therefore, Matilda’s parents loved Matilda’s brother but neglected Matilda. Matilda’s father was a car dealer who sold sub-standard second-hand cars. That was, of course, illegal. Matilda’s mother was a housewife. Both of Matilda’s parents liked watching TV, whereas Matilda preferred reading. They didn’t buy Matilda any books. They simply didn’t like the idea of Matilda reading books as they thought reading was useless and boring. When Matilda started to go to school, her teacher Miss Honey discovered that she was a genius. Miss Honey decided to let Matilda skip a grade, but the evil headmistress Miss Trunchbull refused that. Miss Trunchbull was a vicious monster. She kept children in a horrific torture device called Chokey or swung them through the air, often without any proof that they had actually done a crime or simply because she did not like them. Miss Trunchbull believed that her treatment was good for teaching young students. Miss Trunchbull was Miss Honey’s aunt. She snatched the big house of Miss Honey’s father and took Miss Honey’s fortune away. Gradually, Matilda knew that she had an eye power; she could use her power to do something without using her hands. Matilda knew about Miss Trunchbull’s wickedness so she decided to play a trick on her and help Miss Honey to get back her house and fortune. One day, when Miss Trunchbull was inspecting Miss Honey's class, Matilda used her powers to pick up a piece of chalk and write on the blackboard. She pretended to be Miss Honey's father's spirit writing and demanded that Miss Trunchbull return to Miss Honey her fortune and her father's house. Miss Trunchbull saw this and was very afraid. The day following the chalkboard incident, Miss Trunchbull disappeared. After that, Miss Honey moved into her father's house and, with the Trunchbull gone, the two of them lived happily together.

Finally, Matilda’s father decided to move the whole family to Spain as he had violated the law and was dangerous staying in the same place, but Matilda asked her parents to let her stay with Miss Honey. They agreed and let Miss Honey adopt her. Parents should serve as role models for their children. Matilda’s parents did not take good care of Matilda and they even discouraged her from reading books. It is unacceptable. They should know that Matilda was a genius; Matilda could read books when she was only three and she could also calculate numbers quickly. Her parents should discover it. Why didn’t they give a good guidance for Matilda? Whatever parents do, their children will imitate them. However, Matilda’s parents just indulged themselves in watching TV and Matilda’s father even made money from doing something immoral, the consequences of these wicked deeds were reflected in their son, Matilda’s brother, who was just lazy and stupid. Also, it is ridiculous for parents to prefer boys to girls in the modern world where intellectual abilities outweigh physical ones. I could observe that Miss Trunchbull and Miss Honey have a big difference. Miss Trunchbull is evil; Miss Honey is kind, Miss Trunchbull is foul; Miss Honey is fair. I don’t understand how they could be relatives. Miss Trunchbull is like a monster; she ill-used her students, fought them, power-played them and ill-treated them. As a headmistress, she should teach her students diligently. Violence cannot solve problems; otherwise, students will hate you. Miss Trunchbull’s attitude made her students get angry with her and stay away from her. Therefore, her students would learn nothing from her except violence. On the contrary, Miss Honey was a good teacher. She found out that Matilda was a genius so she suggested letting Matilda skip over a grade, but that was unfortunately turned down by Miss Trunchbull who didn’t care a bit about the well-being of her students. Teachers should facilitate students to learn. Miss Honey is a very good model of this. She always gave Matilda some books and allowed her to read these books in her lessons. How kind she is! There is a saying “One who mixes with vermilion will turn red, one who touches pitch shall be defiled therewith”. If students want to have good guidance, they need to have a good teacher just like Miss Honey to guide them along the road to success. The most fantastic thing of the story is that Matilda had an eye power. Although I don’t actually believe that there is such a thing in the real world, it is interesting that Matilda could use her power to trick Miss Trunchbull and her parents. Matilda is very clever and helpful because she could trick Miss Trunchbull

without using violence and she helped Miss Honey to get back her house and her treasure. Matilda is just a child but Miss Trunchbull is an evil, strong woman. It was a big challenge for Matilda to fight with Miss Trunchbull. How daring she is! I think Matilda is an independent and mature girl. When her parents were out, she could cook for herself. Also, she could go to a public library quite far away from and carry a lot of books back home with a trolley. Unless being a genius, no child can do it without the help of some adults. Matilda has given us a good message: make reading a habit. She loved to read books. Wherever Matilda stayed, she often had a book to read. In order to read more books, she didn’t care about her parents’ objection and went to the public library lonely. The courage must be from her great love for books. Reading is a nice interest. As long as you read books, you can get learn more and more gradually. Although Matilda was a genius, she needed reading books to acquire knowledge. Therefore, I encourage children to read more books. “Matilda” is a funny book. When I read this book, I couldn’t help laughing, as the tricks played by Matilda are very interesting. For instance, she smeared some glue in her father’s hat and used a parrot to pretend a ghost’s voice. All this shows that Matilda was quite naughty. This has added lots of fun to the story. Children should learn virtues from Matilda. She is kind-hearted, helpful and independent. We need more people of such kind for a quality human race. Total no. of words: 1071