the witches. roald dahl. (69)

in honor of halloween, i decided that brother bear and i would read roald dahl's "the witches" together. but sadly with my work schedule, we didn't get to read together. also he checked out books from his school library and lost interest. but i still read it.

as a kid, i was scared of the book because the movie dramatized me. i never watched scary movies growing up, but saw "the witches" at the afterschool program i attended. i remember being freaked out when angelica houston peeled off her fake face and revealed her grotesque witch one. that scene alone may be the sole reason i never read it as a kid. come
to think of it, i'm not sure if i saw the ending of the movie, i was that scared.

i know this may sound odd but i may have owned a copy or maybe my sister did because grandma bea definitely read the book. so maybe i got older and tried to brave it but never read it. until now.

and what a delightful book. i regret not reading it as a kid and being such a chicken. but i know that elementary school version of me would have loved it especially since the grandma played such a important role in the book. grandma bea will always be my most favorite person in the world and in elementary school she definitely was. if i read this back then i would have been reminded of how fortunate i am to have such a great grandma (because i was reminded now). and though it may seem morbid, as i was reading i worried about the fact that his grandmamma would probably die when he was still young and then he would be all alone in the world. i also thought it was just me being a worrywart but dahl did address this issue. i was so relieved when dahl turned him into a mouse so his life expectancy shorten so he wouldn't end up alone. it sounds crazy as an adult to want to shorten your life so you won't be alone but to kids this would be comforting.

worrying about your grandparent's death might seem heavy for a kids book but it is something that kids do (i know i did). and that is what is great about dahl's books, he writes for kids but doesn't treat them as children. dahl discussed "adult realm" things with subtlety in terms that kids could/can understand. what i love best (and this is something that dahl does in all of his books) is when he gives philosophical insight on society via his characters. like when the boy turned into a mouse and realized that it's not all that bad because "when mice grow up, they don't ever have to go to war and fight against other mice. mice, [he] felt pretty certain, all like each other. people don't." most kids probably never viewed war in this light before. i think it's important to give kids this other perspective considering that war is never demonstrated as being something negative in grade school but is usually taken up as a display of patriotism. yet by showing how silly a war with mice would be, it ultimately shows how silly war is for humans.

i think another important lesson in this book is unconditional love and that hopefully all kids have it. it was gruesome to think of bruno being offed by his parents simply because he was a mouse. but in contrast it was wonderful how his grandmamma loved him regardless. for as the boy told his grandmamma in response when asked if he was sad about being a mouse, "it doesn't matter who or what you look like as long as somebody loved you." the boy would always be okay because he would always have his grandmother's love.

this all seems deep for a kids book. but the great thing about dahl is that his stories are so creative and enjoyable that these little life lessons are dropped in your lap versus forced in your face. it's like pixar movies in which the adult and kid experience are completely different. in my "old" age, i may have focused on parts that would have meant nothing to me as a kid. but that is the beauty of a good book you can go back and find new things.

(ps after reading this i think next year i might dress up as a roald dahl witch. if i was a school teacher i would read this to my class and then on halloween, wear a wig and claws and show my no-toes feet to my class. lol.)