Why are British kids’ books so clever and fun? It kind of seems unfair to the rest of the kids in the world, doesn’t it?
Anyway, I had some good fun listening to two audiobooks featuring brilliantly fun British kids earlier this year: Matilda by Roald Dahl (narrated by Ron Keith) and Jeremy Brown: Secret Agent by Simon Chesire (narrated by Richard Mitchley).
I am mostly familiar with Matilda through the adorable movie. And though I didn’t think it possible, the Trunchbull is way, way worse in book form than in movie form. I mean, I was seriously not prepared for how terrible that woman is, and I have seen the movie more than once.
And while I know I should have loved Matilda (the book), I wound up only really, really liking it. Why? Because the scene where Miss Honey revealed her life story to Matilda made me so uncomfortable. Book Matilda is only five, and while she is super bright and seems mature, she is still only five. Imagining a wee little five-year-old listening to Miss Honey just didn’t sit right with me.
That said, I loved everything else about the book.
Jeremy Brown: Secret Agent was a pick of my daughter’s, I think. At any rate, we really dug listening to the adventures the kids went on. The word play in the stories is excellent. And, wow, I really love Jeremy’s sidekick Patsy. She is AMAZING. Mostly because she loves eating and beating people up. Oh, and she will not have Jeremy calling her a sidekick at all, so he has to come up with different ways to refer to her that don’t offend her. Love Patsy.
Jeremy’s fine, too. But Patsy owns my heart. Maybe I am secretly really aggressive? It’s possible.
Source: Library
The Englishist 