Last night at storytime I figured that maybe my 7yo daughter Alice would be ready for some of my favourite books as a kid. I suggested we read some Roald Dahl and she agreed. Last time I tried to read some, it didn’t go down well but this time she told me her best friend was reading Matilda.
We read the first chapter and have to say I had forgotten how wonderful Roald Dahl writes. Matilda is about a little girl who happens to be a genius but has horrible parents. The first chapter is about the wonder of books and libraries. After the first chapter, my daughter asked to read more herself and she would have read all night if I hadn’t told her to go to sleep.
And this morning, she was telling me all the terrible tricks that Matilda did on her parents in revenge. I remember the story myself when I read it as a kid and to see the excitement from my daughter as she retells how Matilda put super glue on her father’s hat or how she switched her mother’s hair bleach with her father’s hair spray, made me all happy this morning.
tl;dr Books rock.