The Witches: Roald Dahl - Softcover

Dahl, Roald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141365471 ISBN 13: 9780141365473

Publisher: Puffin, 2016

Synopsis

A REAL WITCH gets the same pleasure from squelching a child as you get from eating a plateful of strawberries and thick cream.

BEWARE.

Real witches dress in ordinary clothes and look like ordinary women. But they are not ordinary.

They are always plotting and scheming with murderous, bloodthirsty thoughts - and they HATE children.

The Grand High Witch hates children most of all and plans to make every single one of YOU disappear.

Only one boy and his grandmother can stop her, but if their plan fails, the Grand High Witch will frizzle them like fritters, and then what . . . ?

Now you can listen to THE WITCHES and other Roald Dahl audiobooks read by some very famous voices, including Kate Winslet, David Walliams and Steven Fry - plus there are added squelchy sound effects from Pinewood Studios!

And look out for new Roald Dahl apps in the App store and Google Play- including the disgusting TWIT OR MISS! and HOUSE OF TWITS inspired by the revolting Twits.

Soon to be a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE starring ANNE HATHAWAY, OCTAVIA SPENCER, STANLEY TUCCI and CHRIS ROCK, coming in 2020.

About this title

Review:

"This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches." So begins one of Roald Dahl's best books ever, and, ironically, it is such a great story because the premise is perfectly plausible from the outset. When the narrator's parents die in a car crash on page two (contrast this terribly real demise with that of James's parents who are devoured by an escaped rhinoceros in James and the Giant Peach), he is taken in by his cigar-smoking Norwegian grandmother, who has learned a storyteller's respect for witches and is wise to their ways.

The bond between the boy and his grandmother becomes the centrepiece of the tale--a partnership of love and understanding that survives even the boy's unfortunate transformation into a mouse. And once the two have teamed up to outwitch the witches, the boy's declaration that he's glad he's a mouse because he will now live only as long as his grandmother is far more poignant than eerie.

Of course, there's adventure here along with Dahl's trademark cleverness and sense of the grotesque. Dahl also communicates some essential truths to children: if they smoke cigars, they'll never catch cold, and, most importantly, they should never bathe, because a clean child is far, far easier for a witch to smell than a dirty one. (Ages 7 to 10, or read aloud to younger children) --Susan Harrison

Review:

A true genius . . . Roald Dahl is my hero (David Walliams)

About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0141365471
• ISBN 13: 9780141365473
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368
• Illustrator: Blake Quentin