Matilda

Great story, poor audio book. Kate Winslet does amazing accents and the story is wonderful but the volume varies from extremely loud to extremely soft. I fought with the volume knob throughout the whole thing. Not great if you're trying to entertain a big kid in the car while letting a baby nap...

I can't stand Roald Dahl stories...I ordered several of them based on reviews and was horrified. The only story I have liked is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I cannot imagine anyone living without the stories of Dahl. My family grew up with this author's writings and now, as busy adults, audio is a used even more. Dahl writes for all ages, this book is another one to listen to over and over again. Matilda is an endearing and enduring heroine, “All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen.”

LOVE this! We watched the movie and my son read the book. We are now listening to this. It's unabridged, so he is hearing things he didn't read (and we are hearing parts we didn't see in the movie). Kate does a fantastic job reading it and is quite theatrical with the characters. We all have REALLY gotten into the story through this CD.

The ONLY downside is the vocabulary (especially the first chapter). It's really beyond a child's ken. I suppose Dahl didn't consider this :) I have to explain some words here and there (e.g. "asinine" to my 5 and 11 year old), but other than that, we are very engrossed in the story.

Meet Matilda, a bona-fide child prodigy. Matilda could speak very clearly at an unusually early age and naturally began to read much sooner than most children. Her parents never noticed, however. Mr. Wormwood is always too busy finding new ways to trick people into buying the lemons at his used car dealership, and Mrs. Wormwood spends most of her time watching television and doting on Matilda's older brother. In fact, if you asked Matilda's parents, they would probably tell you that Matilda was quite slow and dull-witted. They would be quite surprised indeed to learn that Matilda had been walking herself to the library every day since the age of 4 and had read almost every book there, her favorite author being Charles Dickens. When Matilda was finally old enough to go to school, it didn't take her teacher, Miss Honey, very long to discover what an exceptional child Matilda was. Here was a tiny little girl who could read and understand books that would give many adults headaches, and who could multiply large numbers in her head with astonishing speed.

There was one small problem, however - Mrs. Trunchbull, the school's headmistress. Mrs. Trunchbull hated children and it just so happened that she had recently bought a car from Matilda's father. That was bad initially because it gave Mr. Wormwood the opportunity to tell Mrs. Trunchbull what a troublemaker Matilda was, and it was even worse later on when Mrs. Trunchbull discovered what a lousy car Mr. Wormwood had sold her. So things started off rather poorly for Matilda and went downhill from there. But even little girls can take only so much, and after several weeks of watching Mrs. Trunchbull abuse her friends, Matilda's pent-up frustration finally comes out in a most unexpected way.

I couldn't help but notice how Matilda's relationship with her parents was very much like the relationship between Harry Potter and his aunt and uncle. Vernon and Petunia Dursley hated Harry and were always giving him the short end of the stick in everything, all the while doting on their fat, spoiled son Dudley. It was the same for Matilda: her parents never really liked her because she was always reading books instead of watching TV and other odd behavior like that. They doted on their son, however, who was every bit as dishonest as Mr. Wormwood, and who would someday inherit his father's used car lot. It was not a happy upbringing for Matilda but it is, of course, pivotal to the story, and perhaps something that some children can relate to. Roald Dahl has an uncanny knack for reaching out to younger readers. Whether it's a boy winning his very own chocolate factory or a girl with the power to overcome a mean schoolteacher, Dahl's stories are the stuff daydreams are made of.

I feel that I should mention one possible trouble spot for parents. During the course of the story, Miss Honey tells Matilda about her own childhood. This is not a pleasant tale and involves a parent who dies under suspicious circumstances and a great deal of mental and physical abuse from Miss Honey's stepmother. It was really kind of disturbing. If you plan to read or listen to Matilda with your children, be prepared for some discussion afterward.

Narrator Kate Winslet proved to be a very pleasant surprise. In fact I found her narration to be every bit as charming as the story itself. Winslet does a wide variety of voices for the different characters in Matilda and I found them all to be perfectly appropriate and downright amusing at times. I especially enjoyed Kate's voice for little Matilda, which was just plain adorable. If you're an adult I think you will appreciate the talent at work here, and you're children will enjoy the funny voices just like the ones in their favorite cartoons. Ms. Winslet has appeared in many, many films, most notably 1997's Titanic, as well as lending her voice to 2006's Flushed Away animated movie. She will be starring as Jeanine Matthews in next year's release of Divergent.

This is the 1st book I read by Roald Dahl. I loved ❤ this book's storyline. Some parts of this story was heartbreaking 💔. I loved ❤ Matilda. My heart broke 💔 for Matilda. I loved ❤ Miss Honey 🍯. My heart broke 💔 for Miss Honey 🍯. I didn't like Mr. Wormwood, Mrs. Wormwood, or Miss Trunchbull. I loved ❤ the ending. Awesome job Mr. Dahl. I loved ❤ the time me & my nephew spent reading it together 😊.

SUPER LIFE SAVER FOR THE CLASSROOM!

It is an entertaining story for kids.

Matilda is such a great story. In this new version, Kate Winslet does an excellent job reading wand bringing the book to life. Fun and entertaining. Awesome!

But my granddaughters never got back to me to tell me what they thought of it. What is the grandma to do?