Matilda by Roald Dahl was first published in 1988. It tells the story of an extraordinarily clever little girl whose gifts are ignored by her horrible family — and what happens when she finally finds someone who truly believes in her.
Matilda Wormwood is a remarkable child. By the age of four she has taught herself to read, and by five she has worked through the entire children’s section of her local library. Her father, Mr Wormwood, is a dishonest used-car dealer who has no interest in books or learning. Her mother spends every afternoon playing bingo. Her brother Michael is perfectly ordinary. None of them appreciate how extraordinary Matilda is.
Matilda amuses herself by going to the library, where the kind librarian Mrs Phelps encourages her reading. She also begins to play clever pranks on her father to get revenge for his cruelty — including glueing his hat to his head and hiding a parrot up the chimney to make her father think the house is haunted.
When Matilda starts school she meets her wonderful teacher Miss Honey, who immediately recognises that Matilda is a genius. Miss Honey tries to have Matilda moved up to a higher class, but the terrifying headmistress Miss Trunchbull refuses.
Miss Trunchbull is a former Olympic hammer-thrower who rules the school with cruelty and fear. She keeps a horrible cupboard called the Chokey — lined with nails and broken glass — where she locks children as punishment. One day Matilda’s friend Lavender puts a newt in Miss Trunchbull’s water jug, and when Trunchbull threatens Matilda for it, something extraordinary happens: Matilda discovers she can move objects with her mind.
Matilda visits Miss Honey’s tiny, barely furnished cottage and learns the truth: Miss Honey’s father died when she was young, and her aunt — Miss Trunchbull — moved into the house, took almost all of Miss Honey’s salary as ‘rent’, and has controlled her life ever since.
Matilda practises her telekinetic powers in secret. In a dramatic classroom scene she uses chalk to write a ghostly message on the blackboard as if it is the ghost of Miss Honey’s father — terrifying Miss Trunchbull so completely that she flees the school and is never seen again. Miss Honey gets her house and her salary back.
When Matilda’s family must suddenly flee to Spain (her father’s car-dealing frauds have been discovered), Matilda persuades them to let her stay behind with Miss Honey. The book ends with Matilda and Miss Honey beginning a new life together.