The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches by Roald Dahl is a perfect read-a-loud book for parents and kids anytime of the year, but the subject of witches would be of particular interest for Halloween.
Our young hero (who remains nameless) loves his Grandmother who tells him stories about the dangers of witches especially how to tell the difference between a witch and a normal lady. It’s really hard because “Real witches dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ordinary jobs.” But what makes witches especially formidable and dangerous is that “A real witch hates children with a red-hot sizzling hatred that is more sizzling and read hot that any hatred you could possibly imagine . . . Her passion is to do away with them, one by one. It is all she thinks about the whole day long.”
Thank goodness the boy’s grandmother is a retired witch hunter and explains that witches are always certain to be wearing gloves to cover their thin curvy claws, wear wigs to cover their bald heads, but have a itchy scalp as a result, large nose holes to smell children out with, and they don’t have any toes instead they are square ends which they try to hide with small, pointed shoes, and they have blue spit.
The boy’s parents die and he is sent to live with the grandmother that he loves so much. When vacationing together at a hotel he finds himself locked in an entire room full of members of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruely to Children. Imagine his fear when he soon discoveres all the tell-tale signs of witches. He isn’t able to escape the danger and the adventure that follows will keep you turning the pages for more and laughing out loud.
Roald Dahl is a gifted storyteller and I enjoyed The Witches more than I did James and the Giant Peach. The Witches was a fun read that I look forward to reading with my kids when they are older.
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Category: Book Reviews, Fiction, Middle Readers
Tags: A-D Author, banned, book to movie, halloween, U-Z Title
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Love this book!!!
on October 31st, 2008 at 6:37 pmI loved Roald Dahl when I was younger! I haven’t read this one but I should definitely get a copy.
on November 1st, 2008 at 7:01 amI have not read this book in so long! I loved Roald Dahl when I was a kid. I really want to read the new book, I think it is called The Irregulars, about Dahl being a spy.
on November 1st, 2008 at 5:52 pmRoald Dahl Rocks! I have a collection of his poetry and several of his books. My daughter’s favorite is The BFG. She finally got to see the movie. We just checked out a copy of several of his books on tape from the library to listen to in the car. When I have 6 or 7 kids in my van it helps reduce the noise-level.
on November 1st, 2008 at 7:20 pmMari – So glad!
Trish – I never read Roald Dahl, somehow I made it out of childhood without him.
Jeanette – I’ll have to look into that one. Thanks!
Jenn M. – I have the BFG on the shelf but haven’t read it yet. I didn’t know it was a movie. Maybe I should read it for the Lit Flicks challenge I’m doing.
on November 2nd, 2008 at 12:24 amI have to admit that I’ve never read any of Raold Dahl’s books. My daughter has and loves them, so I’ll have to read some soon.
on November 2nd, 2008 at 12:48 amKim – I thought James and the Giant Peach was just okay but I haven’t seen a bad review of The Witches yet. I must admit that those are the only two I’ve read although we have a lot more in the house.
on November 2nd, 2008 at 12:59 amI just finished reading this yesterday. It was the only Roald Dahl book I hadn’t read before. I complained a lot while reading it and shared my thoughts out loud w/ my teenage son, who kept reminding me it was just a book
on November 2nd, 2008 at 8:09 amI must be oblivious. I didn’t know there was a Lit Flick Challenge you were doing. Shiloh, the Newberry we are reading right now has a movie version too.
The BFG movie is old…but my daughter was still excited. It’s animated and I thought some of the unfriendly giants were scary, but she didn’t seem to care. But then again she watches Harry Potter and isn’t afraid of the dementors. You could read through the BFG pretty quick. It’s an easy read. Reading it out loud a couple chapters at a time to my daughter I was done in less than a week.
on November 3rd, 2008 at 4:32 pmI saw the movie before I read the book and the book is good but I love the movie too. You should watch it!
on November 3rd, 2008 at 6:17 pmHey…I just remembered, I’m pretty sure there is a movie for The Witches too. Not sure if Callista was talking about the Witches movie or the BFG movie.
on November 5th, 2008 at 9:42 amI just read this for the first time and really liked it.
on November 6th, 2008 at 12:57 pmJupiter – Well, you have to share with us why you didn’t like it!?
Jenn M. – Trust me, I can hardly keep track of my challenges, I don’t expect anybody to keep track of mine as well! I didn’t know Witches was a movie. I’ll go check to see if our library has it in their system.
Ladytink_534 – It was fun wasn’t it?
on November 6th, 2008 at 10:06 pmWhat the heck? What is my comment from the 3rd and my comment from the 5th doing combined together under Natasha’s name…spelled wrong?
Hmmmmm…I was reading the email feed and went, “wait a sec…I wrote that?!?”
I hope scary things aren’t happening with your website again Natasha!
on November 25th, 2008 at 6:53 pmJenn M. – Me and you both! What is going on? This came in and I thought, this sounds like Jenn but I didn’t make the connection about the comment combination. The email address and IP associated with the previous comment are not ones I’ve seen before. I think somebody may be playing around? Anyways, I’m going to delete it. Weird, weird!
on November 25th, 2008 at 7:48 pmGood to know I’m not the only one confused. Doesn’t make too much sense…if someone wanted to play around, I could think of MUCH worse pranks to play than combining two of my comments and making them come from you with your name spelled wrong.
Oh well. Not the end of the world. Just odd.
on November 25th, 2008 at 9:10 pmhello,am looking for Dahls biggest fans and vice versa,am writing my bachelor theses and need someof your opinions.I would be thankful if you write me back on my email: kristinaaj@centrum.sk.Thanx in advance
on January 28th, 2009 at 7:59 amim reading the witches right now im to the part were the little boy goes to the magnifecent hotel and the boy takes his two mice i forgot what there name was but he went into the ballroom and went behind a big deal with a dragon on it and he figures out that the witch convenshoin was held there because it said that every year will be a witch convenshoin so thats all i have read so far.
on April 1st, 2009 at 5:14 pmReview – The Witches…
Title: The Witches
on July 3rd, 2009 at 5:01 amAuthor: Roald Dahl
Published: 1983
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5 of 5
The Witches is about a young orphaned boy who learns about witches from his grandmother, a retired witch hunter. His grandmother teaches him how t…
[...] The Witches by Roald Dahl [...]
on September 26th, 2009 at 2:38 ami loved the witches
on November 5th, 2009 at 4:24 pm