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| From roalddahl.com |
We are just a week away
from Roald Dahl’s Day. And since, this year, I am going to do a few things
related to dear ol’ Mr. Dahl on Sruti’s BookBlog. We are going to do a review
this week, about ‘The Magic Finger’, then on September 13th, which
is next Sunday, which is Roald Dahl's Day, we are doing a storytelling on another one his books on Roald Dahl Day at Easy Library, Hyderabad.
There are a few other secrets too...
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| The Magic Finger |
So, in this one, we
have the review of ‘The Magic Finger’. First thing about Roald Dahl is, he makes me
smile. :) So, when I firstly saw the book, it contained an illustration of a
little girl pointing upwards, and with her finger all golden, as if to show a
spark coming off it. So, I wondered how Mr Dahl and illustrator, Quentin Blake
could get me laughing this time round. So, I read on…
The story begins with a
little girl, who is eight years old, who lives on a farm. Her neighbours are eight
year old Philip and eleven year old William, who live on the farm next door
with their parents, Mr and Mrs Gregg.
All the three kids are
good friends, except on Saturdays, when the Greggs, go hunting with their father. Even the little boys have guns and they are
off to shoot birds and animals. One Saturday, the little girl tries to stop the
Greggs from going on their hunting trip. And they should have listened to her
because she has a fairly big secret…
The little girl is the
owner of a magic finger, which she almost never, intentionally uses. The magic
finger is something which, she promises herself not to use, like she happened
to, on her teacher, Mrs Winter.
Mrs Winter happened to
ask her to spell cat, and the girl spelt it as ‘kat’,
putting Mrs Winter in a
temper. But poor Mrs Winter had no clue that the magic finger would be used on
her. Mrs Winter ended up with whiskers growing out of her face and cats’ ears
and a bushy tail. And the funniest thing is she never got better!
So, whenever the little
girl gets mad, her forefinger begins to tingle and lo and behold, a spark comes
out of it. She was so mad at the Greggs that she happened to use it on them, as
well. She did not even know what would happen to the Greggs.
The Greggs come home
that day with sixteen dead birds and four live ones, which refused to stop following
them. They come home and go to sleep for the night, only to wake up in the
morning with duck wings. Things move fast, as they discover they are meant to
live as birds and be hunted down too!
By four huge birds, who
have decided to take over their house, and everything in it! The best part is,
the guns too have been taken over by the birds and the Greggs happens to see them,
carrying and pointing them at the Greggs.
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| Quentin Blake |
What would happen now?
Were the guns to be used on the Greggs? The little girl, who is the owner of
the magic finger comes in and discovers the whole scene, the next day…
It is a fun book, with
all the lessons it had to teach the folks, who happen to take out guns and
shoot at innocent creatures. It is very exciting, as you are compelled to turn
the pages. One can see how the events unfold and how they work for the little
girl and the ducks. It is an amazing story, and does the job for kids and
adults, too.
The best part is not
just the story, but the illustrations too. Quentin Blake does a superb job of
them, as usual. You can see the spark on the little girl, the cat’s tail on Mrs
Winter, the wings on the Greggs, and the gun holding birds and much more.
Because it never is a
true Roald Dahl book without Quentin Blake’s work in it, is it? It will have
you laughing and teaching the kids a little something too; this book does,
doesn’t it?
You could Buy the Book right here :)
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