The Witches
By Roald Dahl
Reviewed by Saki Nakazawa
Introduction
Hi, I am the main character in the story. Have you ever met a witch? I
have. Every witch in the world hates children. I am living with my
grandma who knows most of the secrets of witches because she is a
retired witchophile. Witchophiles study about witches. They travel
around the world to destroy them. She says that the first witches came
from Norway, where there are many icy, dark forests.
What is the story about?
This story is about me, my grandma, all the witches of England, and the
Grand High Witch of All the World. My grandma and I went to Norway
for the summer holidays, and stayed in a white hotel near the sea. It was
called Hotel Magnificent. But, soon I discovered that the Grand High
Witch, who is the leader of all witches, was staying in the same hotel. She
tried to get me and in my throat, the Grand High Witch poured a small
bottle of green liquid called “Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse Maker”
This liquid can turn children into mice. I was turned into a mouse, but I
am not so unhappy about that.
Did I like how the book ended?
Yes, I liked the ending because grandma and I stole the Delayed Action
Mouse Maker from the Grand High Witch’s room, and poured the whole
bottle in the Grand High Witch’s and the other witch’s soup. But when I
was going back from the kitchen, one of the cooks saw me, and cut about
two inches off of my tail with a carving knife. I ran around the room to
find a hiding place. I ran up the trousers of a cook that was near by. It was
boiling hot in there, but I knew I had to keep on going. The cook was
slapping on his legs and knees to try to smack me. He was yelling, “Get
the mouse! Kill it before it bites me!” and the other cooks were saying,
“Pull off your trousers!” Then I slid out of the trouser and dove into a
sack of potatoes. This was my favourite part of the book.
How did I feel when I had to put the book down to do
something else? (Now the reader is talking, her name is Saki)
I felt a little bit disappointed when I had to put the book down to do
something else, because the book was so interesting, especially when the
main character was in the kitchen of the hotel. When I was doing
something else, I always thought about the book. I felt scared after I read
a little bit of the part where the character was trapped in the room with all
the witches. I like fantasy and Roald Dahl uses zesty sentences.
Closing
I would recommend this book to anybody who likes adventure books. It
is also a very exciting book, and anybody who reads it will be so
interested that they will refuse to put the book down. At the end, in
Norway, the
character asks the
Chief of Police in
Bournemouth for
the address of the
woman who
disappeared from
the Hotel
Magnificent. The
police told her the
address, and it was
a castle in Norway
where it had all the
names and
addresses of all the
witches of the
world. Then the
character and his
grandma decided to
travel around the
world with the
Delayed Action
Mouse Maker and
destroy all the
witches of the
world.