Thursday, April 05, 2007

My March Reads and The Witches by Ronald Dahl

Here is my review:
A little boy visits his grandma in Norway, but once his parents die in a car crash she has full custody of him. So he has to go back to England where he goes to school and she tells him more about Witches and how to tell who is a Witch. They go on a short holiday to the coast and spend some time there. And he goes off to train his two mice but finds himself in the Witches’ convention. Will he make it out and if he does can he get rid of them?

Ronald Dahl is an imaginative writer. I first was appalled by the way Witches were described and how they wanted to get rid of children. It was a little over the top and scary as well. That part that cracked me up the most was the way the Most Grand Witch wanted to do in order to wipe out all the children of England. I just rolled my eyes. The story followed very well but the one thing I would have liked was to have a name for the narrator.

The little boy who told the story was very sweet. He really truly loved his grandma and she wanted the best for him even though it meant leaving her home country. The grandma was very wonderful and told interesting stories. I found it intriguing how she knew what she told but I’ll leave that up to you to find out.

I give this story a 4/5. It is my first banned book in a long time. I can see why people would challenge it because of the spells and the way that witches are portrayed in it. They are seen as evil and want to take your children away. I found it fun and enjoyable once I was able to get a clear picture of Dahl’s portrayal of Witches. I definitely want to read more by this author and very soon too I hope.

208 pages/Banned Book

I hope to get another one or two done this month and then maybe I'll read more. lol

Here is my stats and books read for this month. It took me awhile cause I had the number of pages messed up.
Most Likely To Die by Lisa Jackson, Wendy Corsi Staub, and Beverly Barton 3-01-07 through 03-02-07 A+
Dear John by Nicolas Sparks 03-02-07 through 03-03-07 C
The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer 3-03-07 through 3-06-07 B
A Much Younger Man by Veronica Wilde 3-06-07 A
A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber 03-06-07 through 03-07-07 A+
Lying with Strangers by James Grippando 03-07-07 through 3-08-07 A+
In the Wash by Rebecca Benston 03-08-07 A
Trouble by Jesse Kellerman 03-08-07 through 03-09-07 C
Savannah’s Hero by Diana Bold 03-10-07 through 03-11-07 A
Beguiled by Shannon Drake 3-11-07 A+
The Ghost and the Wolf by MC Scout 03-12-07 through 03-13-07 A
Slightly Psychic by Sandra Steffen 3-13-07 through 3-14-07 A
My Angel by Denise Shelton (178) 3-14-07 through 3-15-07 A
Consigned to Death by Jane K. Cleland 3-15-07 through 3-16-07 A+
Bogeyman by Gayle Wilson 3-16-07 through 3-17-07 A
The Enemy Stalks by Betty Sullivan La Pierre (TBR Challenge) 3-18-07 A+
Little Lady, Big Apple by Hester Browne 3-18-07 A
Castle in Spain by Kate Hofman 3-19-07 A
True Evil by Greg Iles 3-20-07 through 3-22-07 A
The Defense by Stacey Lynn Schlegl 3-22-07 A
Second Glance by Jodi Picoult 3-23-07 through 3-25-07 A+
Calamity Claresta by Irene Estep 3-26-07 A
Nettleflower by Teri Beckett and Chris Power 3-26-07 A
The Will by Reed Arvin 3-27-07 through 3-30-07 B
Not Another Dateless Valentine’s Day by Veronica Tower 3-30-07 A
Bewitching The Bachelor by Suzanne Marie Calvin 3-30-07 A
Blood Rite by Melanie Atkins 3-31-07 A

My stats:
Total Books read: 27
New Authors this Month: 22
Non-Fiction read this month:0
Fiction:26
Chunksters: 6
From the Stacks:2
TBR:1
Fresh New Books I bought: 5
Fresh New books sent to me:1
Pages read:7,647

Well off to get some writing done and maybe some reading too. :)

3 comments:

hellomelissa said...

i read "the witches" as a kid but don't really remember it well. it's on my son's "to read" shelf, so maybe i'll pick it up and flip through it before he does. he's nuts for beverly cleary right now, especially ramona.

Lover of Books said...

I think the one main thing people forget is that it is fiction. We need to let people know that it is such. :)

hellomelissa said...

since your review piqued my interest, i thought i might like "the witches" better as an adult than i did as a child, and i did! thank you!

my son lives in a fictional world all his own, and i have no doubt that he will love the book. although it might make too many parallels between the witches and his witchy mommy (cackle)!