The 22nd Annual Book Report Competition for Secondary School Students

Class: 4C Student: Luk Kwan Chak Title : Matilda Author: Publisher : Puffin Books

Do you know what a genius is like? Do you know what would happen if parents showed no interest at all to their children? Do you know what would happen if a child could make miracles? If you cannot answer these questions, I recommend you to read “Matilda”.

Matilda, the main character in this story, was a tiny girl with dark hair and a round serious face. She was a great mathematics and reading genius. When she was at four years old, she walked to the public library every day and read all the children’s books. She accumulated a lot of knowledge. Although Matilda was a genius, she had two idiot parents. Her parents didn’t care about her. Although she showed strong signs of being a genius, they encouraged her to watch television instead of reading books that which she preferred. They thought that it was useless to read books. Matilda was having a great time driving her parents crazy. She had two good friends at school, Lavender and Miss Honey.

Lavender was exceptionally small for her age, “a skinny little nymph with deep-brown eyes and with dark hair that was cut in a fringe across her forehead.” Matilda liked her because she was gutsy and adventurous. She liked Matilda for exactly the same reasons. Miss Honey was the teacher of Matilda’s class. Miss Honey knew Matilda was a genius and she was shocked by Matilda’s multiplication and reading in the first school day. Miss Honey thought Matilda shouldn’t stay at the bottom class so she talked to the Headmistress, . Miss Trunchbull, once a famous athlete, had bull-neck, big shoulders, thick arms, sinewy wrists and powerful legs. If you looked at her, you would feel that this was someone who could bend iron bars and tear telephone directories in half.

Miss Trunchbull was Miss Honey’s aunt. Miss Honey disliked her because she was not a kind person. One day, Matilda discovered that she could move things without touching them. She was surprised to know she had this extraordinary ability. She used this ability to help Miss Honey to get back the house from Miss Trunchbull by using the extraordinary ability to frighten Miss Trunchbull. At that time Matilda’s father was in a bunch of crooks and ran off to Spain to shelter himself. Matilda didn’t want to go with them. At last she stayed there and lived with Miss Honey.

I really envy and admire Matilda and I want to possess the same ability as hers. I think if I could have the same ability as her, I could easily get into university because I could think very fast, multiply lots of numbers and speak very well. I can understand all the knowledge that is taught in school. Then I’ll get good results in the school exam and the public exam. Also, her extraordinary force is wonderful, interesting and fantastic. I want to possess it too. However, I know that I have to work hard if I want to get into university but not to wish I were a genius.

Matilda reads lots of books and loves to think and learn. From Matilda, I know that reading books is important for learning. She seems to be interested in everything. I should take Matilda as an example and learn from her attitude of studying. Although I want to possess the same extraordinary force as Matilda, I think it is very dangerous because it is a mysterious force and unexplainable. It is unknown and it maybe evil. Therefore if I possessed this ability, I must handle it with great care.

This book “Matilda” is written by a famous children’s storywriter called Roald Dahl. He had written lots of stories such as “James and the Giant Peach”, “Matilda”, “The BFG” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. Stories written by Roald Dahl are all very funny, witty and fresh and I kept laughing while I was reading “Matilda”. Matilda will surely go straight to children’s hearts. Let’s enjoy “Matilda”!!

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