Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Book Review: The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl

Like so many other children that came before and after me Roald Dahl was a must read writer. Roald just seemed to understand children in a way that so many others don't. While I've read a good number of his books this was my first time reading this one. So I brewed a strong cup of earl gray and dived right in.

In The Magic Finger a young girl with special magical abilities lives next door to the Gregg family. Upset over their hunting for fun her magic finger gets to work and before they know it the Gregg family has become a family of birds. 

As an adult this one is a bit harder to read. Not that it is a hard read at all. But this book is written in first person perspective of the little girl. The grammar and speech cadence therefore is written as an 8 year old little girl would write. For a child it speaks right to their level. For an adult you just want to go along and edit.

I enjoyed this silly tale that had a message layered in it about those who kill animals just for sport. I'm not a fan of hunting myself but if the hunter actually eats the meat then I'm not offended. I don't believe in killing things just to kill them. 

I hate to say that this is not one of my favorites among his books but it was still enjoyable and better than a good number of books out there today.

3 out of 5 stars.

1 comment:

  1. Found you through the "Share A Tea Challenge". My 9 year old son just started reading this to me last night. We only got 5 pages in, so I just had to read your review to see what you thought. We also have The Enormous Crocodile, which we haven't read yet.

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