Roald Dahl

Have you ever been angry with someone? I don't suppose you ever turned them into something! When the girl in this story gets really angry, she zaps people with her magic finger, with alarming results. Her teacher grows whiskers and a tail, and you won't believe what happens to the Greggs...they'll never be able to look at a duck in the same way again.

The Magic Finger

Aehg

Grace O'Callaghan

** spoiler alert **
           As always such a pleasure to read a Roald Dahl book. I’m just able to be completely absorbed into Dahl’s brain of the absurd and wonderful. Whilst this one is definitely not my favourite, I still very much enjoyed it.

Really loved the premise that when the protagonist is cross her finger magically ‘teaches them a lesson’ by zapping them. Just such a fun concept. It was very short and I’m glad that it was. It could of been drawn out but Dahl kept it short and sweet.

I thought some parts were a bit illogical, I’m not really sure they’re intentional or not. When the ducks and the Greggs are kind of ‘swapped’ the Greggs still have their own voices whereas the ducks answered the phone by quacking. That would have been fine for me. However later on they talk in human voices and unless they were pretending with the quacking it just didn’t make sense to me.

I also thought that Dahl kind of painted the Greggs as evil. Whilst yes it’s not good to go out shooting animals just for fun, they’re not the worst people in the world. It was just a little too black and white for me.

I know it sounds like I’m complaining about tiny things, but it’s a tiny book. Overall, had a lot of fun reading it, but it’s not my favourite of Dahl’s.

FANTASY & MAGICAL REALISM (CHILDREN'S / TEENAGE). Phizz-whizzing new branding for the world's No.1 storyteller, Roald Dahl! Exciting, bold and instantly recognizable with Quentin Blake's inimitable artwork. Every Saturday morning the Greg family goes off to shoot animals and birds. But the girl who lives next door hates hunting. Now it's made her so angry she's Put the Magic Finger on Them All. And very strange things have begun to happen... Ages 7+

Kirsty

I actually did enjoy this book. It was nothing groundbreaking but it was good for a short story with a moral I agree with.

Ruth Parker 

I loved this book when I was a kid, it was one of my favourites, I can still picture the hardback cover, reading it in bed under the covers with a torch after being told to go to sleep...
But as an adult it didn’t have the same impact on me. I know it’s written for children, and it’s unfair to rate it as an adult when I’m not the target audience, but I see the political elements more and while I totally agree with them, it feels a bit much. 
I’m giving the book 4 stars... 5 stars from when I was 5 years old and loved it beyond belief and 3 stars from reading it as a 30 year old and finding it a little preachy... rounded together makes 4 stars :)

Mary Graham

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