Roald Dahl

Esio Trot

mighty dragon 

** spoiler alert **
           Cute story. A clever man, slightly cunning if I must say, Mr Hoppy is. But hey, whatever it takes for love, yeah? As long as it's still in the good side. Didn't really like how he got excited hearing the words “I'd be the slave of your life” though.

Quentin Blake

Grace O'Callaghan

I’m so glad to finally be able to jump into more books of my favourite childhood author. Esio Trot was short but so utterly delightful.

We follow Mr Hoppy who lives above Mrs Silver. His apartment balcony doesn’t come out as far as Mrs Silver’s so he can see her on her balcony. He yearns for her from afar, but her love has already been given to her pet tortoise, Alfie, and the story goes on from there.

For something so short, I didn’t expect to love it quite so much. It’s so hilarious and wonderful. Dahl’s characters are always so loveable and these characters were no exception.

Dahl’s writing is so incredibly accessible without being simple and boring. I really believe that any age would enjoy some aspect of his books.

I also adorn Quentin Blake’s illustrations. They just make the books come to life.

All in all, this was a great and quick read. Would definitely recommend.

Esio Trot (Novel)

Sam Pulliam

This book is really short - like 60 pages so I can’t say a lot but one of my biggest comments is “why?” This book follows Mr. Hoppy who is in love with his downstairs neighbor Mrs. Silver. Mrs. Silver has a pet tortoise named Alfie and she desperately wants him to grow faster. Mr. Hoppy sees this as his chance to win her over and comes up with an elaborate scheme to make that happen. This was ridiculous and totally unrealistic and weird. There’s also a choice Dahl made to have Mrs. Silver say she’d be Mr. Hoppy’s slave forever and I hated it. Overall though, it’s a fine story. Very weird and fun. Also, is this a romance?

Luisina Rivoira

** spoiler alert **
           WTF? Everything about this book is wrong! If you've read it before and loved it, I invite you to try again and see how awful everything this man does is. He lies, cheats, steals, and all with the excuse of being in love? And he is REWARDED for this? And he never has to come clean about anything? He literally stole a woman's beloved pet, replaced it (something she NEVER noticed, what?), and never gave it back! Bullshit. Get this book as far away from me as possible.

Tania Cheong

Very adorable and a simply loveable book. The lengths at which Mr Hoppy would go to woo Mrs Silver is endearing. Read it about 3 times through.

Roald Dahl's Esio Trot in glorious full colour! High up in a tall building lives Mr Hoppy all alone. Downstairs lives Mrs Silver. Mr Hoppy loves her. And Mrs Silver loves her tortoise, Alfie. Oh, if only Mr Hoppy could perform some great feat that would make him a hero in her eyes! Then one day his mind goes click and an amazing idea rushes into his head. With the help of a magical spell, some cabbage leaves and one hundred and forty tortoises, can shy Mr Hoppy win Mrs Silver's heart? And now you can listen to ESIO TROT ( with THE GIRAFFE AND THE PELLY AND ME) and other Roald Dahl audiobooks read by some very famous voices, including Kate Winslet, David Walliams and Steven Fry - plus there are added squelchy soundeffects from Pinewood Studios! And look out for new Roald Dahl apps in the App store and Google Play- including the disgusting TWIT OR MISS! and HOUSE OF TWITS inspired by the revolting Twits.

Esio Trot

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