Matilda by Roald Dahl

I started out reading this one to my son every night at bedtime. Well, wouldn't you know it - he picked the damn thing up one night and finished it on his own. As soon as he moved on to the next book, I picked up Matilda so that I could finish it and find out what happened.

As I was reading, I had that vague feeling you sometimes get - some parts were a little familiar, so I was sure I'd read it before, but for some reason I couldn't really remember what happens in this novel. This is odd for me, because I tend to have a pretty good memory for books I've read. Obviously it's been a long time, though, or else Matilda is a particularly forgettable story.

Anyway, it's a fun book in the usual style of Roald Dahl: horrible adults are taken down by smart, good kids. In this case, one smart, good kid - Matilda Wormwood, who manages to overcome a truly unfortunate set of parents and a school headmistress who could give Dolores Umbridge a run for her money. Matilda's primary weapon is her brain, though she gets a bit of help from a slightly more supernatural skill...