1 The Witches

Browse reviews by:

Spaghetti Book Club - Book Reviews by Kids for Kids

The Witches

Written by Roald Dahl

Illustrated by Quentin Blake


Reviewed by Amanda R. (age 10)


The Witches

Have you seen a witch? Well then in the book, The Witches the main characters are the boy and the grandma. The boy is very brave. He is brave because his tail got cut off and he didn’t even care. The grandma is very kind to the boy because she takes care of him. She is smart because she know a lot about witches.

The big idea is that the boy goes to the ballroom and finds 85 something. Do you know what the boy finds? Well then the best thing to do is read the book. The lesson of the story is no matter if you are small like a mouse, you can be a human and act like a human. Also if you find witches try to find a different place to hide and don’t eat chocolate from strangers. Also you have to listen to your parents and grandparents.

At the beginning of the story it seems to be that the grandma was a witch because she knows a lot about witches. The book is a mystery because you don’t know what is going to happen to the boy next.

Some of the pictures are scary and funny. The picture relate to the story because the words and the pictures match. The witches look very weird because the witches have square feet, they have blue spit, they have wigs because they are bald, they have gloves because they don’t have fingernails, they have very big noses, and their eyes change color.

The grand high witch is very scary because the boy nearly screamed out loud because when the grand high witch took the mask off she was very frightening. Her face was so “crumpled and wizened, so shrunken and shriveled and looked as though it had been pickled in vinegar.” It was kind of rotting. In the middle of her face, around the mouth and cheeks, the boy could see the skin all “cankered and worm-eaten, as though maggots were working away in it.”

The special event takes place in Hotel Magnificent, where the boy comes to the ballroom and sees a special thing. Can you guess what the boy saw?

I think the book was very interesting. I liked it because I got to see everything that the boy and the grandma went through, because after the boy’s parent died, to finding the witches in a ballroom, is very interesting to me. My favorite part in the book was when the grandma was telling the boy about the 5 kids that vanished. I was psyched to see them and how they vanish. My other favorite part of the story was when the boy was trying to train the mouse. I thought that was funny because the boy was trying to make a circus with mice.

I liked the boy because it was cool how he saw a witch in the back of the house. The boy was very scared that he climbed a tree all the way to the top. I don’t like the Grand High Witch because she was trying to change all the kids into mice, by giving them chocolate with Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse-Maker. I felt worried when I found out that the boy was seen by the witch and I felt funny when Bruno was stuffing bananas in his mouth.

I recommend this book to my cousin, Eric, because he likes mystery and fantasy books. I think that he would love the part when the boy turns into a mouse. I also think he would laugh at the part when Bruno was stuffing bananas into his mouth. That’s why I recommend this book to my cool cousin, Eric. I would also recommend this book to my friend, Kayla. I would recommend this book because she likes reading any kind of book. I would think that she would like the part when the boy was training with the mice behind the screen trying to train them to be in a circus. So that’s why I recommend this book to my best cousin and my cool best friend.