The Witches

A gem. Dahl has magical powers. He doesn't hit every note, but he gets into a kind of patter, a rhythm that feels instinctually correct, bringing up the ideas and thoughts that a 7-to-12-year-old would think up. The internal logic, consistency, subject matter, and problem-solving has a deep and wonderful "trueness" that reminds you of when you were that age. And along the way he throws out tiny little sparkles of language and imagery that astonish. The Witches is important because fewer people know about it-- which makes it a better read, and an unsmuttered experience. James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or Matilda might actually be better books-- but they are so well-known, so well-chewed and displayed and show more turned into movies and so forth-- that Witches becomes the better book. I haven't read Danny the Champion of the World since I was a child-- I should probably go back and try it. In my memory, Danny the Champion of the World takes Dahl's central conceit into deep and uncomfortable territory, creating a path to a kind of moral ambiguity which is actually a lie. Dahl touches this theme in all of his books, I think... and it works, insofar as that's how kids really feel a lot of the time, and mirrors how cruel and inconsiderate adults genuinely are---- but these truths don't make wrongs become right. In the Witches, this theme is very strong, but somehow the shape and curve of the story makes it more of a fairy-tale and not reflective of real life. The book has a delightfully non-traditional plot shape, and the persistent transformation of the main character is something rarely seen in books. He is going to be a mouse, and his goals and aims as a creature do not need to be higher-- he doesn't need to grow up. He can be amazing as a child. show less

I'm only reading this book because I want to read The Witches: The Graphic Novel by Pénélope Bagieu, and I prefer to have read the original work before reading an adaptation. I never read Roald Dahl's book when I was a child, and I fear I must have missed some window of appreciation, because I just don't get why his stuff is popular at all.

I mean this book starts out with some heavy woman hating -- all witches are women, witches are hard to distinguish, therefore it's best to be suspicious of all women -- and ends on the premise later used for the Dexter TV show. I understand how this can be viewed as subversive, but it just mostly seems inappropriate to me.

I probably would have loved this book as a child, but the story-telling style didn't work well with my adult sensibilities. Still, the tell-tale characteristics of witches were fun, and the witches' convention was a hoot. I read the Grand Witch's dialogue aloud to myself and couldn't help laughing as I did it.

Які ж дорослі та страшні казки пише Роальд Даль! Ні, звичайно, ніхто й не чекає, що відьми - це приємні бабусі, готові допомагати всім та кожному, однак в цій книжці вони просто надзвичайні ненависники дітей, настільки, що навіть чаклунка з «Гензель і Гретель» може здатися «няшкою». Тим більше в масштабі здійснених нею лихих діянь. …Бабуся багато розповідала своєму маленькому онукові про відьом: про те, що show more вони злі, лисі і тому носять перуки, мають страшні пазурі - тому завжди в рукавичках, володіють тонким нюхом на дітей, і тому їх ніздрі завжди трішки роздуті. І ось одного разу наш герой потрапляє на реальний шабаш, повний небезпек, всього злого й нелюдського. Та хлопчик не впадає у відчай. Не дивлячись ні на що, сповнений сил, рішучості, він разом з бабусею прагне покарати всіх відьом, в кінці-кінців перемогти зло… що буде далі, читайте самі. Не буду перетворюватись в суцільний спойлер))) Казка написана в легкій манері, та й сюжет не тривіальний. Читається із задоволенням. Для дітей дуже навіть страшна історія. А для мене... скоріше весела та кумедна... З перчиком. В ній зібрано цілий букет почуттів, переживань та емоцій. Якби цю книжечку я прочитав ще в дитинстві, то обов’язково спостерігав би потім за кожною жінкою в рукавичках і з блискучими очима, вигадуючи в своїй голові нові історії та пригоди... Зараз же я просто посміхаюся від задоволення. І ще: мені так хотілося б мати таку ж бабусю, як в казці - добру, щиру родичку, що завжди буде на моєму боці, захистить і не дозволить опустити руки… Від книжки я просто в захваті! Раджу прочитати найбільшим фанатам дитячої літератури. Та тим діткам, які не просто НЕ бояться страшилок, а навпаки - мліють від чогось подібного. show less

One of my old books I found in an recent root-round in the Ents' attic. Only okay as a reread in my late twenties, though the illustrations are great fun. When I do my fantasy class, we tend to end up reading a lot of children's lit, and I always ask them to think about what aspects of a book (beyond reading level) make a book for children. We get onto subjects about themes in children's lit, and one that always comes up is mistreatment of children (a staple of fairy tales as well as modern children's lit). My students are generally able to come up with some ideas about why children are mistreated in particular stories (for instance, a popular theory is that Harry Potter, in order to be an appealing and convincing hero, must come from show more humble beginnings), but none of my classes has ever come up with a good theory as to why this is a theme of children's literature as a whole. It's fascinating to me that so many stories designed for older children (say, sevenish and up) and young adults feature children who are either orphaned or mistreated (or both). It must, I suppose, tap into some fear or desire (or both) that children enjoy seeing explored in fiction. Anyway, all that to say that The Witches would fit very well into that conversation as the story is about beings whose primary goal is to rid the world of children--and who walk around disguised as the people young children are taught are the safest to approach: nice-looking ladies. show less

Some booklists call it a children’s book but I’m not sure that I would buy it for just any child. Some it would scare the kids to death and make them fodder for Dr. Phil. Roald Dahl never seems to doubt that children already know a great deal about witches. Like the grandmother in the story, Dahl says children don't require extreme coddling...nor is he timid about using fear to tell a story. Again I ‘m not sure that it’s a thing that just any child could handle. There are always some truths in fairy tales...most were written to teach a lesson. Dahl obviously believes that monsters can exist in a way that allows children to face their fears... not sure I agree with that either. I found this to be a rather strange book. Maybe show more something was lost in the translation. I love horror stories and ghost stories...but from a child’s viewpoint...I think I would find this very disturbing. show less