Posted on by Hermione · 1 Comment

Tom’s Midnight Garden-A book review

Name: Tom’s Midnight Garden

Author: Philippa Pearce

Genre: Childrens’ Fiction

This book is about a boy, Tom Long who goes to live with his Uncle Alan and his Aunt Gwen since his younger brother, Peter has the measles. His aunt and uncle live on a flat so there is no garden. Tom is sad and bored with only a few indoor games. One night he hears the old grandfatherclock, that belongs to old Mrs. Bartholemew strike unusually thirteen times. He gets out of bed and opens the back door in the hall and he finds a beautiful garden and he sets out to explore it and finds a funny letter adressed to the king of fairies. Oberon.

He keeps his discovery a secret and asks his aunt and uncle if lying is good and if they have a garden. Every night, Tom goes to the garden and soon befriends a lonely little girl called Hatty and they play together.

Soon Hatty has an accident while falling on a tree and she stays in bed for a long time. Sometimes, Hatty would grow faster when she had the accident and sometimes she was smaller.

One day, a grown up Hatty and Tom skated through Ely and they meet Tom’s brother, Peter and they skated back. Young Barty offers to give Hatty a ride and Hatty and Tom climb up and Haatty soon forgets about Tom and he becomes so thinner through that Hatty can wave her hands through Tom much to his annoyance.

The next day, when Tom’s opens the back door, the garden is no more here and he screams for Hatty. Mrs. Bartholemew hears the cry and calls for Tom and they soon come to know each other with the very surprising thing that Mrs. Bartholemew is in fact Hatty Melbourne and that she got married to Barty. They soon part since Tom is returning back home with promises that he shall soon come again with Peter.

THE END

I really liked this book and it is one of my favourites. I would rate it:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Hermione

Posted on by Hermione

Matilda-A book review

Name: Matilda

Author: Roald Dahl

Genre: Children’s Fiction

Matilda : Roald Dahl : 9780141365466

This story talks about an extra-ordinary girl, Matilda, that at a very young age, is capable of a perfect speech and reading skills. Matilda is the daughter of her very ignorant parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood who only seem to care about themselves and their son, Michael.

Instead of congratulating their daughter on her skills like any parent would, they simply call her a noisy chatterbox and tell her that little girls are only meant to be seen not heard.

Matilda soon decides to go to the public library when her father refuses to buy her a book. She goes all alone every day without her parents’ knowledge since her father is always at work, her mother, playing bingo and her brother goes to school. Matilda who find herself all alone every week day in the house goes to the library where Mrs Phelps, the librarian soon offers to help Matilda in finding a good book despite her astonishment at her abilities.

Soon enough, Matilda is sent to school at a late age(because of her half-witted parents) and put in the lowest form with a few warnings her father told to the headmistress, Miss Agatha Trunchbull also known as The Trunchbull. Matilda soon shows signs of being indeed a precocious child. Her very gentle teacher, Miss Honey is astonished and makes a demand to the headmistress for Matilda to be put in the highest form but she refuses. Miss Honey gives Matilda other books for higher forms for her to study.

One day, when the headmistress comes in Miss Honey’s class, she finds a newt in her glass of water (the newt in the glass of water was part of Lavender, Matilda’s friend’s prank)which freaks her out. She accuses Matilda for the joke and Matilda finds herself in a rage. She feels a sort of electriity in front of her eyes and finds herself capable to overthrow the glass of water on Miss Trunchbull(who accuses her again) using the power of her eyes.

Afterwards, Matilda tells Miss Honey that she threw the glass of water on Miss Trunchbull using her eyes and Miss Honey invites Matilda over for a cup of tea at her place where she then tells Matilda her sad story of how she became so poor and that Miss Agatha Trunchbull is in fact her aunt. Soon Matilda thinks of a plan so that Miss Honey can live a better life and she practises her powers to achieve it and she does. Miss Honey moves back to her own house and a new headmaster runs the school.

Very soon, Mr Wormwood is fleeing the country as he was found guilty of stealing cars and when his daughter pleads to allow her to stay with her teacher, he agrees, happy to have got rid of her.

Matilda soon leads a happy life with her teacher.

THE END

I found this book really amazing and I would rate it 5/5 stars

By Hermione