Image taken from geeksofdoom.com
As promised, I have finally gotten around to reviewing more of Roald Dahl's fantastic children's novels. This one is by far one of my absolute favourites from him, and it's the ONLY one where I have liked both the book AND the film...
The story is about a Boy and his Grandmother, who both experience a horrible tragedy when the Boy's parents die in a car accident. To comfort each other, the Grandmother tells the Boy bedtime stories to keep their minds occupied. A qualified "witchophile" (pp.34), she begins to give her grandson helpful hints on how to recognize a "real" witches and how to avoid them. This information will prove to be very useful to the Boy, when he almost meets a sticky end with a witch who tries to entice him to climb down his tree house and talk to him (pp. 41 - 54).
Due to the Grandmother's debilitating health, they spend the holidays in a hotel, where the Boy has a rather sticky encounter with a whole bunch of witches staying in the hotel, the most notorious one of all being their leader, the Grand High Witch (pp. 55 - 116). Unfortunately, the Boy is not so lucky to get away, as the formula the Grand High Witch has invented for the purpose of getting rid of all the children of England has turned him into a mouse. It is up to the Boy, his new-found friend Bruno, and his Grandmother, to save the day, before all the children of England come to the same sticky end...
Unlike the film version, starring Angelica Huston as the Grand High Witch, the book is a little more light-hearted. The film version - in my opinion - is slightly darker in terms of its content. Both are really good though, but I wouldn't recommend the film to any child under 6 years of age (seriously, there are some really creepy bits in it!) However, I would recommend the book to all age groups.
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