Un libro muy divertido para el público infantil. Una de las cosas que me han gustado más es el esfuerzo de la traductora en hacer que las canciones rimen también en castellano. En otras traducciones (otros libros) se dedican a una traducción literal haciéndonos perder esa musicalidad que el autor pretende dar a ciertas partes.
Dahl, siempre recomendable para niños.

Oh how I enjoyed reading a Roald Dahl again after all these years.

Reading The Witches was a very nostalgic experience for me. As I have mentioned before in some of my previous reviews as well that I am currently a part of children's bookclub and because of that even I have to keep reading children's books every now and then to be able to initiate discussions during the session. And I am really glad that I get a chance to finally read the books that I hadn't read as a kid. And I think there is a different charm to reading children's books as an adult. You read so much more closely and between the lines.

The Witches was an extremely fun, exciting and hilarious ride. I loved every second of it. The illustrations, as usual, were fantastic.

But the best was the ending. I was so touched by the relationship between the boy and his grandmother. And the entire thing about "It's okay as long as you love me" at the end was just so beautiful that I myself got a little teary eyed.

In the book's forwewood by Felicity Dahl, she says that John Cleese calls this book a "love story".
And I think that's very much true. This book is a very beautiful and heartwarming love story indeed that I belive every person from all age groups should read.

Ante ustedes, una historia que de pequeña aportó un granito de arena a ese amor que fue creciendo en mi interior por el horror. Y que levante con orgullo la mano quien alguna vez tuvo un leve escalofrío al ver en la película a una de éstas brujas. Puedo decirles que a mí, personalmente, me perturbaron bastante, y a la vez me fascinaron.
Para los que no estén familiarizados con la historia, la historia es narrada por un chico el cual pierde a sus padres en un accidente de auto justo cuando estaban viajando a la casa de su abuela. Ella se compromete a cuidarlo y a educarlo, siguiendo cautelosa la voluntad de los difuntos padres, quienes desean que vivan en su casa original en Inglaterra. Ella comienza a hablarle sobre las brujas, sobre cómo identificarlas, lo que hacen y cómo evitarlas. La curiosidad del protagonista crece, así como también su miedo. Resulta que la abuela cae enferma y se debilita, razón por la que no pueden realizar un viaje que deseaban hacer, y se quedan en un hotel grande, donde se encuentran con una convención de señoras que cumplen con las características de una bruja.
La historia es escabrosa, y yo creo que si lo hubiera leído de más pequeña, le hubiera temido un poco a las brujas. Especialmente, la parte en la que hace una descripción tan detallada del aspecto de una bruja, con sus uñas como garras, sus cabezas calvas, sus miradas penetrantes y sus narices puntiagudas que pueden oler a los niños con gran facilidad.
La historia puede resultar espeluznante, pero la lección al final es de oro, como en prácticamente todas las historias del magnífico Roald Dahl. Es definitivamente algo que recomendaría a cualquier menor para Halloween, ya que viene muy bien.

I know the story of Matilda but only from the film adaptation so The Witches was my first book by Roald Dahl. The story seemed oddly familiar and I think I might have read it when I was younger (in school perhaps?) or may have seen the movie (I googled, there is one with Anjelica Houston as The Grand High Witch) but I can't remember.



Anyway, the story was quite good. A little creepy, a little weird, a little funny, a little adventurous - the perfect mix.
I've heard people say that this was too scary for children but I don't think so. I guess it just depends on your child. I, myself, would have definitely enjoyed this story even at the age of only 8.

The only thing that I noticed was the age of the story itself. It was written/published in 1983 and some things written here are very ... out-of-date? ... would be considered in poor taste?
Example:  When Grandmamma gives us a lesson in how to recognize a witch, the baldness is mentioned and how a bald woman was disgusting to look at. I would think that this isn't something an author would say nowadays. Just think of women that are bald due to cancer treatments or a genetic mutation. Nobody would want them to feel "disgusting" for how they look. I hope.
Moreover, although it is a common concept the whole thing about dying together is not something I support. People say it all the time like "at least they died together" when someone dies in a plane crash for example but it always leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I understand that people don't want to be left behind by their loved ones but still ... So imagine how I felt when at the end of the book Grandmamma said that a mouse-person was living for about 9 years and the little boy (!) replied that that is fantastic because then they can die togther!
Also, and I'm fully aware that this is an unpopular opinion, I think that any pet is a family member. And not one family member is more important than another. All should be equally important so when Grandmamma was telling Mr. Jenkins to get rid of the cat because Bruno was more important, that didn't sit right with me. Especially when one takes into consideration how many pets get abandoned or even killed each year when they become "a liability" to their owners!
That put me off a little.

To make up for these three things, sort of, there was one line that was simply perfect however:
"It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you."


All in all, the story was written in a slightly amusing, dark-humoured style (with the occasional side blow on society and norms, such as certain disciplinary actions at schools at the time) with quite some thrills in the middle and it was indeed spooky. Great October/Halloween material.

3.5
" Las BRUJAS DE VERDAD visten ropa normal y tienen un aspecto parecido al de las mujeres normales. Viven en casas normales y hacen TRABAJOS NORMALES. Por eso son tan difíciles de atrapar"

El otro día pasé por la librería y vi este libro de casualidad. Estaba en la sección de libros de lectura obligatoria de primaria. Algo en mi interior me decía que tenía que llevármelo si o también. Miré su sinopsis y me pareció bastante interesante: contaba que un grupo de brujas estaba planeando la desaparición de todos los niños de Inglaterra pero que gracias a la valentía de una abuela y su nieto, sus planes se vieron arruinados. Cuando les contaba a mis conocidos que me había cogido este libro, todos hablaban maravillas de él y que existía una película igual de buena. Más tarde, me di cuenta que era el mismo autor de “Matilda” y “Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate”. De este último recordaba la película de Tim Burton, la cual vi de pequeña en el cine. Fue entonces cuando me dije que si me había gustado tanto aquella película seguro que este libro podría ir por el mismo camino. Al tener menos de 100 páginas lo leí en menos que canta un gallo. Me pareció una historia muy entretenida, aunque el final podría haber sido resuelto de otra manera. Por otro lado, me encantó la relación de la abuela con su nieto pero sobretodo las brujas, esas mujeres eran lo mejor de la historia, sin duda alguna.

The trouble with this movie, is that we are supposed to cheer for the wrong side. The premise, for those who haven’t read or seen it, is that the witches have a practically foolproof plan to turn all the children of the UK into mice.

I mean, what’s not to like?

You may say I shouldn’t have been watching this movie with a cat. It’s true, the cat and I have never been more on the same wave length. As I sat there biting my nails and screaming at those witches ‘not the soup, please don’t eat the cress soup’ (because a boy mouse had put the spell into it, so that the witches were to get a taste of their own medicine, so to speak), the cat was rigid with anger, hair, whiskers, tail, you name it, it was standing on end. This cat will never speak to Roald Dahl again. How dare he dangle such a prize in front of him, the most delightfully plump, tender young mice, and then take it away like that?

Signed NGE and..okay...go on:


n  n

Classic Roald Dahl with great illustrations by Quentin Blake. Loads of fun and a great story - a must read.

3,5*
No tuve el placer de leer los libros de Roald Dahl de niña, ¡pero nunca es tarde!
Tengo que reconocer que de haber leído este libro de pequeña probablemente me habría vuelto un poco paranoica buscando brujas por todas partes...!
Me habría gustado que ciertos puntos sobre el aspecto físico real y "deformaciones" de las brujas no se hubieran tratado como rasgos horrorosos y específicamente relacionados con su maldad (calvície, no tener dedos de los pies).
Dejando esta crítica de lado, la historia me ha entretenido mucho y las ilustraciones me han encantado. Planeando ya cuál será el siguiente Dahl que lea, probablemente Matilda :)

“ĪSTA RAGANA neieredz bērnus. Viņas naids ir tik svelošs, ka pat čurkst. Tas ir čurkstošāks un svelošāks par jebkuru citu naidu, kādu vien spējat iedomāties.
ĪSTA RAGANA lielāko daļu laika kaļ plānus, kā tikt vaļā no bērniem, kuri mīt kādā noteiktā, viņas izraudzītā teritorijā. Viņa alkst tikt galā ar katru bērnu atsevišķi. Viņa domā par to augu dienu. Pat strādājot par kasieri milzu universālveikalā, rakstot vēstules biznesmeņiem vai arī braucot pēdējā modeļa auto (un viņa tiešām var darīt visu minēto), raganas prāts nemitīgi būs nodarbināts ar dažādu plānu kalšanu, nejaukiem nodomiem, tajā vienmēr kulsies, degsies, bursies un mudžēs pēc slaktiņa asinīm izslāpušas domas.”

No vienas puses es mazliet jūtu līdzi tām raganām - iedomājieties, ja jums zem deguna regulāri smirdētu pēc suņa kakām (tā viņu deguniem smird mazi bērni)! Varbūt jūs arī kaltu plānus par smirdētāju iznīcināšanu?

Lai nu kā, prikolīgs stāsts, burvīgi zīmējumi un negaidīti neparastas beigas.

The witches of England have a plan to do away with ALL English children. This little Norwegian orphan boy and his grandmamma come up with a plan to do away with all English witches instead. When they've accomplished that task, the little boy is noticeably altered in size and appearance. He doesn't mind, though. He sets off cheerfully with his grandmamma on a grand tour to rid the entire WORLD of those evil witchy creatures.

I've always known there were real witches in the world, because Mrs. Nail, my first grade teacher, was the Queen Witch of the Universe. If only I'd had this book, I could have convinced everyone else I was right about her.
If you suspect that someone you know could be a witch, check for the following:

1)They always wear gloves to hide the curvy cat claws they have instead of fingernails.

2)Real witches are always bald as a boiled egg, but they hide it with first-class wigs. The wigs make their bare scalps itch, so watch for head-scratchers.

3)Witches have bigger nose-holes than ordinary folks, the better to sniff out little children with.

4)The pupils of a witch's eyes will keep changing color as you look into them. They'll switch from fire to ice and send a shiver up your spine.

5)Witches never have toes. Their feet have square ends.

6)Their spit is blue, like ink.

Once you've established that you have a bona fide witch on your hands, it's time to slip some Formula 86 into her food and watch the transformation. Lucky for you, the secret recipe for Formula 86 is right here in this book, courtesy of your friend Roald Dahl.
Happy witch hunting!

BOOK #24 READ FOR BELIEVATHON ROUND 2.

I reread this book for my rereading childhood favourites  video!

n  “It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.”n

representation: erm... witches? lol

[trigger warnings are listed at the bottom of this review and may contain spoilers]

★★★★★

I think this is my favourite Roald Dahl book. It's just TOO GOOD.

trigger warnings: death of parents (in the past), ill grandparent, subtle fat shaming, mice (like… a lot of mice).