Matilda Matilda was a lovely and smart girl. She lived with her parents and her brother that mistreated her all day long. Matilda was so intelligent that she decided to make pranks to her parents whenever they did not treat her as they should. Matilda used to spend her days in the public library reading all kind of books. This poor girl was always surrounded by people that did not pay attention to her, but this changed the day that she entered school. Her first day at school she surprised her teacher by showing her she knew how to read cleverly and multiply big numbers. Her teacher, Miss Honey, wanted to show Matilda´s parents and the Trenchbull, the headmistress, how brainy Matilda was, but they ignored her. The Trenchbull used to be the typical person that everyone was afraid of, she was very scary, the only person that encouraged to address her was Matilda. Matilda´s powers allowed her to everything that everyone wanted to do. Her first magic public trick was in front of all the class when she threw a water of glass to the Trenchbull because she blamed her of something that she did not do, which was a very risky prank. Matilda decided to show Miss Honey a magic show after the joke to the Trenchbull and Miss Honey could not believe it, she was astonished. They became friends, so friends that after this show they went to Miss Honey´s house to have tea after school. There Miss Honey told her about her life, she told her that she is very poor because she used to live only with her father in a wonderful house, because her mother died, and when her father unfortunately died too, she started to live with the Trenchbull and then, the Trenchbull stole Miss Honey´s money. Miss Honey could move to a small cottage after this happened. Matilda felt that she had to help Miss Honey, and she did. One day the Trenchbull went to Matilda´s class and Matilda used her skills to make a chalk to write alone. She wrote that the Trunchbull had to stop cheating Miss Honey and that she had to give her the things she stole back. When the Trenchbull moved because she was very scared, Miss Honey recovers her normal life and Matilda started to visit her every day. Matilda moves up to the school´s highest class and she loses her powers. In the end Matilda moved with Miss Honey because her family was moving to Spain and she did not want to go with them.
Extract: "That idiot Amanda", Hortensia said, "has let her long hair grow even longer during the hols and her mother has plaited it into pigtails. Silly thing to do." "Why silly?" Matilda asked. "If there's one thing the Trunchbull can't stand it's pigtails," Hortensia said. Matilda and Lavender saw the giant in green breeches advancing upon a girl of about ten who had a pair of plaited golden pigtails hanging over her shoulders. Each pigtail had a blue satin bow at the end of it and it all looked very pretty. The girl wearing the pigtails, Amanda Thripp, stood quite still, watching the advancing giant, and the expression on her face was one that you might find on the face of a person who is trapped in a small field with an enraged bull which is charging flat-out towards her.
Vocabulary Blue satin bow:
Breeches:
plaited it into pigtails:
enraged bull:
Characters: Lavander: She is another student of Miss Honey, and she is one of the smartest, after Matilda. Lavander and Matlida are really good friends although she is a little bit jealous of Matilda. The Trenchbull: She is very evil; she loves torturing kids and make them sad. She is enormous and disgusting. The Trenchbull doesn´t care about other people, she doesn´t have a person that loves her and she doesn´t care about it. Matilda: She is brainy, smart and brilliant. Matilda is very intelligent and lovely. This little girl grown up with her parents that never paid attention to her but then she had the possibility to move with Miss Honey, her teacher that loves her and appreciates her. She can do magic and think a lot too. Amanda Thripp: As the quote describes her, she has the hairstyle that the Trenchbull does not like.
Why did you chose it? I´ve chosen this quote because it shows how kids are afraid of the Trenchbull, how evil she is and how she punishes kids without a reason. This quote is full of vocabulary that I didn´t understand the first time I read it.
Point of view In this story the anonymous narrator tells the story in third person..