Why on earth didn’t the librarian safeguard Matilda?

I agree! I used to volunteer at a school reading with Year 6. I read the abduction scene and was completely horrified. The kid I was reading with was just into the drama of the story, but with adult eyes it is deeply disturbing. I think Dahl knew this. He had a taste for horror.

Nobody appears to have done background checks on Miss Honey before allowing her to adopt a child from her class with whom she seemed to have formed an inappropriately close relationship.

How come the extended Bucket family were so poor, when Mr Bucket had a job and all four grandparents would have been eligible for state pensions? 🤔

For that matter, why didn’t James and Lily have a backup guardian in case something happened to Sirius? They were in hiding and he was part of a movement fighting Death Eaters, they didn’t think to have a plan for the baby if none of them survived? Always seemed mad to me that her estranged Muggle sister was next on the list.

In the 80s I used to walk to primary school alone and even took my 4 year younger sister to reception class! Our teachers weren't shy in clipping folks about the ear or hurling a board rubber or a chalk / pen at kids who didn't listen. We had to sit in front of the god awful school lunch until end of break if we didn't eat it all and the head would pop past and lecture on the starving kids in Africa (sometimes the nice dinner lady would rescue you and sweep it into a pig bucket whilst no one was looking). I'm 48 now and I still think kindly about Mrs Morris my primary school dinner lady and her pig bucket.

Matilda was cleary an exageration but it wasn't so far from the normality of the 80s that us old folks don't recognise aspects.

Writers for children are noted for letting their young characters live on the edge. Don't forget Enid Blyton letting the Famous Five run around all over the countryside annoying people and cadging picnics. Their parents were clueless. Then there's Frances Hodgson Burnett and her predilection for tormenting small girls - Mary Lennox is lucky to survive the early events in The Secret Garden and as for A Little Princess... in this day and age, one would hope that Miss Minchin would be sent down. She certainly deserves it.

I can't remember where I read it, but apparently, in children's literature, fully present adults don't fit well with allowing child characters to really spread their wings and experience serious jeopardy. Even in Little Women, the fact that Marmee (who is generally idealised) is so busy keeping things together, she takes her eye off one or two details, for example the deteriorating relationship between Jo and Amy. The outcome is nearly catastrophic. But had Marmee been perfect and on the ball about everything, there'd have been less of a story.

Eh? I'm a millennial born in the 80s. We played unsupervised on the beach while our parents got shitfaced, jumped off the top of school buildings at lunchtime, and spent more time in A and E than the library

😂 Why is my first thought "Tell me you're a millennial without telling me you’re a millennial!" ?😂

And fiddling the odometer

I'm an 80s child. Our science teacher used to whack people with the board rubber. I got a 'clip round the ear' by another teacher. I also cycled to school from age 7 and that was about a 3 mile journey. Going to the library on your own would not have been considered at all out of the ordinary.

Also in the Matilda book she talks about how she is fed pretty well. Miss honey has bread and margarine (shocker it's not butter) but Matilda has chocolate cakes etc. after school. So she wasn't mistreated beyond her family not being at all academically inclined.

Really damages the gritty social realism of the rest of the novel, doesn't it?

With regards to Trunchbull’s school, think of all the horrific things happening in real life in schools, boarding schools, sports groups and churches in the not so distant past. So many cases of abuse with children either not listened to or too scared to tell. These fictional tales highlight how powerless children were in that era and I would include the 80s/90s in that.

Matilda was written in the 80s. Having been brought up back then, it's not that outrageous tbh. Of course it's hyperbole/exaggerated, but its not that unbelievable.

Teachers would often put their hands on kids, for example. A whack around the head was normal, I've been hit with a ruler many times. I also knew a teacher that would lock naughty boys in his cupboard. I knew many kids that walked themselves to school at a young age - one boy was late every day, his parent/s literally didn't give a fig, but nothing was done about it 🤷‍♀️

It's one of the reasons I roll my eyes when people start on about the good old days. I'm sorry, but for some kids those days were pretty shit, actually.

I'm still fuming with the person who put a bloody lamppost and a snowy forest in the back of my wardrobe, it's an accident waiting to happen.

Can’t believe the Triwizard tournament got through the risk assessment either, or that they kept the school open when a snake that petrifies non pureblood children was slithering around

I think it’s a perfect example of something Dahl covers a lot. Grown ups don’t really listen to/believe the wild exaggerated tales told by little children.

Matilda also contains the most accurate and harrowing description of coercive control, when Miss Hiney describes to Matilda how Mrs Trunchball controlled her, in an era when such things hadnt been identified or named.

Because it's a story!!

I always pictured very dressy gloves made of silk or something, rather than wooly mittens :D

If we are going down this road, the BFG is flat out terrifying 😳

Why did so few people find it suspicious that certain women wore gloves all year round?

I suspect Miss Trunchbull has the entire staff terrified both of her and of what will happen to them if someone finds out. Also it's a fantasy story.

Ah, the 70s and 80s.

I'm amazed any of us made it to adulthood. :D

Do Mr and Mrs Twit get PIP payments?

Watch the Honest Trailer for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder one). Health & Safety just doesn’t figure in these stories!