A new Dahl for the Dahlaholic in our household, and one he enjoyed immensely, reading most of it on a train trip to London, keeping quiet for the whole journey (a true sign of absorption!). ( )

Re-read and always enjoyable. Our heroine's magic finger only activates when she is cross but the justice it deals out seems to know what it's doing.

As the title implies, the story is about a girl who has a magic finger that casts spells on others when she gets really angry. The eight year old girl doesn’t know how it happens. She only knows that when she gets very cross, she sees red and gets hot all over, her finger tingles, and then something bad happens to the person who crossed her. When her neighbors, the Greggs, frustrate her by refusing to give up their passion for hunting, she points her magic finger at them and their lives are turned upside down. When they awaken the next morning, the find they have shrunk and grew wings, becoming the very creature they have hunted. Before they know it they are foraging for food, sleeping in a nest and coveting their old lives which the ducks have overtaken. The painterly illustrations balance thick black lines with shading and white space to extend and accentuate the storyline. Lower elementary school children will enjoy the fantastical idea of a magic finger and the power it lends the girl. The emotional themes of anger and frustration may spark discussion on how to deal with these natural, often unwelcoming feelings. ( )

Good story, that makes you see things from alternative perspective. However, I hate when it feels like I'm getting someone else's political message thrown at me in the form of a children's story and well this one sort of feels that way... to me anyway. Its a bit anti-hunting for my taste. ( )

(from the back of the book)

To the Gregg family, hunting is just plain fun. To the girl who lives next door, it's just plain horrible. She tries to be polite. She tries to talk them out of it, but the Greggs only laugh at her. Then one day the Greggs go too far, and the little girl turns her Magic Finger on them. When she's very, very angry, the little girl's Magic Finger takes over. She really can't control it, and now it's turned the Greggs into birds! Before they know it, the Greggs are living in a nest, and that's just the beginning of their problems...

A story about an unnamed girl who is eight years old, and living next door to the Greggs (who seem to be more of the main characters of the book than the little girl) doesn't like animals being shot.

In fact, she has herself a Magic finger, that will cause havoc on those who make her very, very angry, including her teacher, Mrs. Winters who after telling the little girl to sit in the corner for spelling cat wrong (K-a-t) she turns her into a cat, complete with whiskers and tail.

As she finds the Gregg boys, Philip, also eight, and William, ten, with a deer that their Father had helped them shoot, the Magic Finger has it's way again and causes even more havoc.
This time not only do Philip and William feel the wrath of the Magic Finger, so does Mr & Mrs. Gregg.

By morning their arms have turned to wings and 4 man sized ducks with arms have taken over the house and forced the Greggs to build a nest and spent a very terrible night, full of wind and rain, high up in a tree.

After promising the man ducks that they will never shoot any animals ever again, the Greggs become human and are allowed to conting living their life with arms and hands.

Mr. Cooper though... that's another story. ( )