En serio, que gran maravilla fue la mente de Roald Dahl. Es increíble que consiga crear historias tan originales. Porque siempre son muy originales. Las brujas se ha convertido en uno de mis libros favoritos infantiles. Por muchas razones.

Me encanta los valores que muestra el libro. Sobre todo la idea principal: no juzgar por el exterior, que este puede ser precioso, pero esconder algo muy horrible. Además es sumamente divertido y no paran de ocurrir cosas. Solo lamento no haber leído este libro de niño. Probablemente lo habría releído hasta aburrirme.

Este libro nos hablará de las existencia de Las brujas. Nuestro pequeño protagonista, al perder a sus padres, será criado por su abuela. Ésta entrañable mujer le descubrirá la existencia de las brujas. Seres terribles que se disfrazan de mujeres bonitas y agradables. Como siempre mucha diversión, mucha acción y muchísima de la crueldad típica de Dahl. A Roald Dahl no lo saca de mi top de autores nadie. Maravilloso.

Roald Dahl is the perfect children's author. He takes kids seriously; there are real consequences for adventures here. His books are perfectly constructed.* I can't imagine having a child and not having Dahl's complete works available for him or her.

This book apparently comes under fire for being sexist, and I get that. I don't agree, though; after all, the wisest and kindest character is the kid's grandmother. And while Dahl does go out of his way to point out that all witches are women, he goes on to mention that all ghouls and barghests are men. And also, Matilda exists.

* Well, almost perfectly; I kept wondering what happened to the mice William and Mary.

My inner child thought this was fantabulous! Also; best Grandmamma ever.

The young boy and his parents were heading from England to Norway to visit his grandmother whom he loved dearly. The death of his parents in an accident meant the young boy lived with his grandmamma from then on. The stories she told him about the witches – she was very knowledgeable about witches – frightened him sometimes. But he was fascinated as well. When they went to England and holidayed in a hotel, they found themselves in a position to stop a group of witches from turning the world’s children into mice…

The Witches by Roald Dahl... I’m sure I must have read this book with my children when they were young, but now I can say without a doubt that it would terrify some youngsters reading this! With hideous witches plotting the demise of children – who wouldn’t be scared! I read this for a challenge…

3.75
Había tenido muchas ganas de leer este libro hace años. la película es de mis favoritas de toda la vida y la experiencia de lectura fue encantadora.
La forma es que está escrito es muy ingenioso y revivir las partes que más me gustan ahora con la lectura es algo que me hizo muy feliz.
Que felicidad tenerlo al fin conmigo.

The story of the young unnamed narrator and his grandmother living between Norway and England and affronting the Great Witch and her minions was delightful and fun. It would not be in my Top 5 of Dahl though (I appreciated the two Charlie books, the BFG, the Magic Finger and James and the Giant Peach more.) I love reading them to my kids in any case and getting all excited on what crazy twists the stories will take.

3.5 stars. Don't know when I read it the first time but I had forgotten that I had. It was somewhat entertaining read and I loved the illustrations. While simple they make the story come alive in an unique way. Not my favorite from Roald Dahl, though it was an easy read

Readers in the Roald Dahl know come to his books with an understanding that PG-13 level violence and mayhem are a part of his charms. This fast moving tale doesn't let fans down; all of the recognizable Dahlian tropes are on display and we are rooting for the child all the way to the end.

I had the extra bonus of having this read to me by my daughter. She's at the stage now where she tries on different accents for each character; her English accent was adorable. So, five stars for the book, five stars for Bel the bookreader.

"Down vith children! Do them in!
Boil their bones and fry their skin!
Bish them, sqvish them, bash them, mash them!
Brrreak them, shake them, slash them, smash them!
Offer chocs vith magic powder!"

Oh, thank goodness for the likes of Roald Dahl, who can combine the scary with the funny stuff and open a treasure chest of children's fairy-tales with all the wisdom humanity is capable of (which, of course, still is quite limited).

As a child, I was terrified and fascinated at the same time when I read this story, hiding it under a pile of other books before turning off the light at night. I just couldn't stomach the idea of finding myself face to face with the witch and her friends in the vulnerable state between sleeping and being awake.



Later, when I read it to my own three children, my youngest cuddled up in my lap and bit her nails while her brothers tried to downplay their excitement. From that experience, I mostly remember the giggles when we tried to imitate the witches' funny accent.

And then I read it to school children. I will never forget those children sitting cosily in front of me on a carpet in the library, surrounded by books and drawings. I slowed down, and made my voice quiet, and read - very carefully - the witch warning:

"She might even be your lovely school-teacher who is reading these words to you at this very moment. Look carefully at that teacher. Perhaps she is smiling at the absurdity of such a suggestion. Don't let that put you off. It could be part of cleverness.
I am not, of course, telling you for one second that your teacher actually is a witch. All I am saying is that she might be one. It is most unlikely. But--here comes the big "but"--not impossible."

I looked up and saw all those students' eyes staring at me. They remembered me dressing up as a witch at Halloween, and I believe for a moment they pondered the possibility of me being clever enough to cover up my actual "witchedness" by pretending to be one.

Recently, my son and I talked about this novel again, as his brother started reading it for the third or fourth time. And all of a sudden, we discovered another layer beyond the message of "stranger danger" and the power of love and friendship to overcome difficulties.

Those witches at the private meeting in the hotel are like celebrities and politicians believing they are alone and stripping themselves of the inconvenient political and ethical correctness which they officially claim to believe in while plotting against the future of the next generation for their own benefit.

Underneath the polished surface, we discover real life witches in all shapes and forms each time we check the news. And that is what Roald Dahl's sense of humour is based on. His characters may be unlikely, but they are not entirely impossible! There is a hint of truth in the bizarre story of witches who want to exterminate the "stink" of children.

"Everyone loves children, and nobody wants to hurt them" - that is a more absurd statement than the witches' mission if we just take into account human ACTIONS (as opposed to official STATEMENTS) during the past thousand years or so.

So, beware of witches! And you never know if I am not one myself, hiding behind the warning like Iago talking about jealousy, that green-eyed monster, that he stirred up himself?

Io adoro Roald Dahl e amo rileggere i suoi libri. Questo lo avevo sottovalutato perché alla prima lettura il lieto fine non mi era sembrato sufficientemente "lieto". Forse avevo sperato che esistesse un antidoto perché il piccolo narratore tornasse a essere un bambino.
Con questa rilettura l'ho rivalutato, perché il piccolo narratore e la nonna ci danno una vera e propria lezione. Innanzi tutto, ci fanno capire che nella vita, una volta che succede qualcosa non si può tornare indietro e disfarla, ma si deve andare avanti con quello che si ha.
E poi che Non importa chi sei né che aspetto hai. Basta che qualcuno ti ami. La nonna continuerà ad amare il suo nipotino anche se ormai è un topino. Al contrario, chissà che fine farà il povero Bruno, visto che la madre sembra preferire tenere il gatto piuttosto che un figlio dall'aspetto topesco.

I was a very sheltered child.

Or was I a wuss? I was probably a wuss.

For instance, when I was a little tot, Sammy Terry scared the shit out of me.  I remember being frightened by commercials of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, and the one time I inadvertently saw part of a Friday the 13th movie on TV? Fogettaboutit. Nightmares for weeks.

But that all came later.

But this book. Oh, this was traumatic shit.

I was in preschool, probably 4 years old, when the teacher decided to read us The Witches. Every day we'd sit on the carpet and listen to a little bit more, and . . . well, witches! Witches were frickin' scary at four, it didn't matter how cartoony they looked on the cover. I knew that real witches were scary looking and ugly. And *SPOILER ALERT* when that one kid got turned into a mouse, it scared me so bad I cried! I cried in front of the other kids, and they all thought I was a wuss!

When I got home, I told my mom about crying in front of the class, and SHE WAS SOOOOO pissed. She called the teacher that night and expressed her displeasure with great verbosity and eloquence, probably traumatizing the teacher every bit as much as The Witches traumatized me.

What happened the next day? We switched books. I can't remember the book that followed The Witches; it didn't scare me, whatever it was. Nobody found out what happened to the little kid who got turned into a mouse. For me, he will forever be a mouse. But at least we little chillens didn't have to hear about any more witches.

A happy ending? More of an ambiguous one. Just a couple weeks later, my parents withdrew me from the school after I, in passing, told mom that the teacher gave her two favorite students ice cream bars during lunch, but never gave anyone else one.

(I wasn't a tattle tale, I promise. I was just very talkative. And a wuss.)

Roald Dahl is one of the best and my favorite children's writer.
He's a master in depicting ordinary details in excellent manner.
Uptill now, I didn't find anything written by him which I don't love. ♡