The Witches
by Roald Dahl · first published 1983
6mentions
2recommended by
6HN commenters
2016–2026first – last mentioned
33% recommend50% neutral17% critical
A young boy and his Norwegian grandmother, who is an expert on witches, together foil a witches' plot to destroy the world's children by turning them into mice.
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I had no idea The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar was for adults. I read that when I was only eight or so after reading other Dahl books like Matilda and The Witches. I loved the premise.
on “Roald Dahl – the storyteller as benevolent sadist (2010)” ↗Roald Dahl has been great for the whole family, we do a lot of driving and listen to them in the car. We are very picky about the narrator's voice. Best so far have been The Witches (Miranda Richardson), Matilda (Kate Winslet) and the BFG (David Walliams - I don't like him personally but he is a great reader). Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a disappointment, the narrator garbles…
on “Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids” ↗…of magic smoke. It would be much better, I'd think, to just accept the original works for what they are: imperfect creations by complicated people. This applies to Roald Dahl too, by the way—IMO, The Witches is inherently mysogonistic and no amount of light edits is going to change that. That doesn't mean nobody should read it; in fact, I think a children's book like The Witches is a great opportunity for…
on “The disabled villain: why sensitivity reading can’t kill off this ugly trope” ↗…which were cutting edge for their time. The Puffin changes are similar in kind. Roald Dahl as an author is known for his dark humor and misanthropic themes. Throwing in a moralizing sermonette in The Witches (whose eponymous witches are bald) that “there are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that” is unnecessary and inconsistent with the tone of the…
on “Roald Dahl ebooks remotely updated to censored versions after purchase” ↗…it's been delightful. It has kind of made me want to do my own audiobook recording of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. James and the Giant Peach was a hit, of course, as was Matilda. We're doing The Witches right now, which I had never read as a kid. It's kind of at the edge of what my son finds too scary, though. My son has started to notice that all of Dahl's heroes have terrible family lives in some…
on “Drug Discovered to Regenerate Lost Teeth” ↗Reminds me of Roald Dahl's 'The Witches', oh and Toy Story.
on “Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?” ↗