The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
My review
4/5 stars
I always remember The Magic Finger being one of my favourite Roald Dahl books as a child, so I was excited to read it to my boy.
Just as I remembered, the hilarity and ridiculousness of the story is what makes it stand out in memory. It's a brilliantly fun way to send kids a message about being kind to other living things, with the overt message hidden in plain sight among humans with bird wings and ducks with human hands.
The fact that it is a little girl delivering that message has a potency that I missed as a child reader. The child element of it is so poignant, given that the message is partly related to environmentalism and it is the next generations that will suffer the consequences. It is also powerful for any young reader that a child is given the power of deliver that message and display that level of intelligence and understanding. Even more important is that it is a little girl - it is evident, especially given the time during which the book was written, that the author was a father of daughters and he wanted them to have strong characters to model themselves on.
The only reason I have given this 4 stars instead of 5 is that I don't remember the book being this short. It was too short - I read it aloud, cover to cover, to my son in under half hour. I feel like the story had more room to develop and the capacity to give more to the reader.
Book blurb
The story of a little girl with magical powers. When someone makes her angry she zaps a punishment on them with her magic flashing finger! This edition has a great new cover, with illustrations by Quentin Blake, and some new facts about Roald Dahl and his world.
More...
You can buy the book here now. It was published by Puffin.
For more on the author, you can head to his website, or check out his Goodreads page.
