Matilda by Roald Dahl

Matilda is a sweet, exceptional young girl, but her parents think she's just a nuisance. She expects school to be different but there she has to face Miss Trunchbull, a menacing, kid-hating headmistress. When Matilda is attacked by the Trunchbull she suddenly discovers she has a remarkable power with which to fight back. It'll take a superhuman genius to give Miss Trunchbull what she deserves and Matilda may be just the one to do it!

Matilda is a precocious 4 year old, daughter of Mr & Mrs Wormwood. Her gormless parents are completely blind to the genius of their child, chosing to heckle her for not wanting to watch TV at dinner like the rest of them.

Matilda soon discovered books. In a short span of time and with the help of a motherly librarian, she went through all the classics. At some point, she solved a mathametical problem for her ungrateful father, who then accused her of so much untruths that she extracted her revenge in her own subtle ways.

Eventually, Matilda had to go to school. The headmistress is a Miss Trunchbull, who is every bit as awful as her name suggests. She has a distain for children in general, and Matilda became an immediate target. It didn't help when Miss Honey, Matilda's teacher, recommended that she be moved to a more advanced class.

The stress caused by Miss Trunchbull leads Matilda to discover a special power and she uses it to correct a wrong revealed to her by Miss Honey.

Read when I was a child, so my opinion can be distorted by the fact that I read it more than 10 years ago and the fact that I loved Matilda.

This was so cozy and sweet and I'm so sad that I didn't read this as a child. Yet in a way, I was able to heal and reconnect with my younger self. It was smart with adult themes, and only felt juvenile in Miss Trunchbull's interactions with the kids. Any reader would enjoy this, and I'm glad I could appreciate it as an adult. Can't wait to see the screen adaptations for the first time!