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Matilda
In a small Buckinghamshire village forty minutes by bus away from Reading and 8 miles from the Bingo club in Aylesbury, Matilda Wormwood, a five-and-half-year-old girl of unusual precocity, whose parents treat her with disdain, resorts to pranks like gluing her father's hat to his head, hiding a friend's parrot in the chimney to simulate a burglar or ghost, and secretly bleaching her father's hair to get revenge on her parents (particularly her father) for their rude and neglectful manners towards her. Matilda has read a variety of books by different authors, especially at the age of four, when she read many in six months.
At school, Matilda befriends her teacher Jennifer Honey who is astonished by her intellectual abilities. She tries to move her into a higher class but is refused by the headmistress, the tyrannical Miss Agatha Trunchbull. Miss Honey also tries to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood about their daughter's intelligence, but they just ignore her.
Miss Trunchbull also confronts a girl with pigtails called Amanda Thripp and does a hammer throw with the girl. Another boy called Bruce Bogtrotter is caught by the cook stealing a piece of Miss Trunchbull's cake and she makes him eat all of the cake in front of the assembly.
Matilda quickly develops a particularly strong bond with Miss Honey and watches as Miss Trunchbull terrorises her students with deliberately creative, over-the-top punishments to prevent parents from believing them like throwing them in a dark closet dubbed "the chokey" which is lined with nails and broken glass. When Matilda's friend Lavender plays a practical joke on Miss Trunchbull by placing a newt in her jug of water, Matilda uses an unexpected power of telekinesis to tip the glass of water containing the newt onto Miss Trunchbull.
Matilda reveals her powers to Miss Honey, who confides that she was raised by an abusive aunt after her father's suspicious death. Her aunt is revealed to be Miss Trunchbull who appears (among other misdeeds) to be withholding her niece's inheritance so that Miss Honey has to live in poverty in a derelict farm cottage and that Miss Honey's salary is being paid into Miss Trunchbull's bank account for the first 10 years of her teaching career (while she is restricted to £1 per week in pocket money). Preparing to avenge Miss Honey, Matilda develops her telekinetic gift through practice at home. "When I pass the test, I will go into my room" is Matilda's favourite line throughout the story. Later during a sadistic lesson that Miss Trunchbull is teaching, Matilda telekinetically raises a piece of chalk to the blackboard and writes on it, posing as the spirit of Miss Honey's late father Magnus and, addressing her using her first name (Agatha), demanding that Miss Trunchbull hand over Miss Honey's house and wages and leave the school, causing Miss Trunchbull to faint.
A short while later, the school's deputy headmaster Mr. Trilby visits Miss Trunchbull's house to try and find out what has happened. He finds it empty with no sign of what has happened to her. As Mr. Trilby becomes the new headmaster, he proves himself to be capable and good-natured with the result that Matilda herself advances to the highest level of schooling. Rather to her relief, she is no longer capable of telekinesis; this is explained by Miss Honey as the result of using her mind on a more challenging curriculum.
Matilda continues to visit Miss Honey at her house regularly, but one day finds her parents and her older brother Michael hastily packing to leave for Spain which Miss Honey explains is the result of the police finding out that he has been selling stolen cars. Matilda asks permission to live with Miss Honey to which her parents rather distractedly agree (her mother somehow finally understanding Matilda's bond for her teacher). Matilda and Miss Honey both find their happy ending and the school's atmosphere and curriculum overwhelmingly improve under Mr. Trilby.
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