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The Witches
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The Witches
Unavailable
The Witches
Audiobook4 hours

The Witches

Written by Roald Dahl

Narrated by Miranda Richardson

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches.

Grandmamma loves to tell about witches. Real witches are the most dangerous of all living creatures on earth. There's nothing they hate so much as children, and they work all kinds of terrifying spells to get rid of them. Her grandson listens closely to Grandmamma's stories-but nothing can prepare him for the day he comes face-to-face with The Grand High Witch herself!

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 26, 2013
ISBN9781101632604
Unavailable
The Witches
Author

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) es un autor justamente famoso por su extraordinario ingenio, su destreza narrativa, su dominio del humor negro y su inagotable capacidad de sorpresa, que llevó a Hitchcock a adaptar para la televisión muchos de sus relatos. En Anagrama se han publicado la novela "Mi tío Oswald" y los libros de cuentos "El gran cambiazo" (Gran Premio del Humor Negro), "Historias extraordinarias", "Relatos de lo inesperado" y "Dos fábulas". En otra faceta, Roald Dahl goza de una extraordinaria popularidad como autor de libros para niños.

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Reviews for The Witches

Rating: 4.114389635919854 out of 5 stars
4/5

2,745 ratings85 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A re-read from when I was a kid. Still an amazing book! I love Dahl’s style and how he’s no holds barred for children.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I saw the movie adaptation of The Witches when it came out in theaters, and in fact I was roughly the same age as the narrator at the time the movie came out. Maybe that's why the movie terrified me so very much when I saw it. There's something about this story that just disturbs me, whether it be the horrible faces of the witches or the terrible transformations involved.It's interesting reading this one having not revisited the movie since I first saw it back in 1990. Most of it still sticks with me, but I can't quite remember everything, so it's hard to know for sure what stayed and what was changed from book to movie. Reading the book, of course, makes me all the more interested in rewatching the movie. I just hope I can control the terror I felt during my initial viewing all those years ago.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    For a story aimed at children, The Witches is decidedly dark. A young boy living in England is orphaned, and goes to Norway to live with his Grandmother, who happens to be an expert on witches. In the story, witches are real, and their sole purpose in life is to kill young children. One can determine who is a witch if one knows what to looks for, but the witches are able to cover them up in various ways - claws on their hands are hidden by gloves, bald heads hidden by wigs, and so on. Grandma tells her charge all about witches, including the frightening ways they killed some children she knew. She tells him about the worldwide witch organization and how it is run by the grand high witch, a vile person that no one has ever been able to track down. She also says that witches can smell children, and that he should rarely bathe, which I'm sure is advice many young readers would like to hear. After some legal problems concerning his parents' will, the two move back to England, a place that is supposed to have the worst witches. While on vacation, our hero stumbles into the annual meeting of England's witches, and none other than the grand high witch. While in hiding (having not taken a bath for several days), he overhears the witches' plan to eliminate all the children in England by turning them into mice, whereupon their teachers and parents will inevitably kill them. He witnesses them turning a boy named Bruno Jenkins into a mouse, and is discovered and turned into a mouse himself. After many adventures, he and his grandmother turn the tables on the witches, turning them into mice to be killed by the hotel staff. He and his grandmother than plan to find the grand high witches' castle and kill the rest of the witches in the world, making for a happy ending. Sort of. As they don't have a counter spell, he remains a mouse, although that only seems to inconvenience him a little. Bruno is not so fortunate, as the two speculate that his parents probably had him drowned. As a mouse, his lifespan is shortened to nine years or so too. So, while the good guys emerge victorious, they pay a significant cost. The Witches is a scary, bittersweet story, and nothing less than I would expect from Dahl.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A perfect book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is short, only a little over 200 pages long, and absolutely worth the money and the read!! I've enjoyed the movie since I was a child myself and own it on DVD as an adult, and it was fun to see the ways in which the book was similar and quite different from the movie version.In addition to being a quick read, it's also a completely entertaining and fascinating story. One of the things that I love is that one of the heroes is a plucky but tough old lady. You just don't see grandmothers as heroines of stories much and it really is a nice thing to see! I think especially for me, because I was always quite close to my maternal grandparents growing up as we lived in the same house.There are some things in the book that may not be considered appropriate for kids these days, but I doubt they were a big deal back when this was first published. It's amazing what just a few decades can do to the culture and how kids are viewed and reared and the things we think they should be sheltered from change.There are definitely a lot of instances where I think some parents would cringe, while others wouldn't mind at all. I think the best thing to do would be to read the book first if you're the sort of parent that feels it's important to be careful what their kids are allowed to read.Still, I think this book is something any kid will have fun reading and will be absolutely entertained by. I would definitely recommend it! In fact, it could be a rather fun book to read together with your kid each night, if you're willing and able to do bedtime read-togethers or just bedtime story-telling. And if you haven't done that yet, well this might be a good book to start that with.Obviously, kids who come from a family where they practice a pagan religion, or have friends or other family who do, and identify as Witches may need a bit of a disclaimer before reading it. It definitely is not a kind depiction of witches in the story, and there could be some feminist parents who balk at some things as well. I think once you finish the third chapter, you probably know all you need to know in order to decide if your child should be allowed to read the book, personally. But then, I don't have children and when I was a kid my mother didn't restrict what I read, so I may be coming at it from a skewed perspective.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    All the love!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I saw others here on LT discussing this book recently and just had to read it. I remember the movie as a young child and how much fun it was; this book didn't disappoint. Dahl did a wonderful job of telling the absurd story of a young boy who learns about REAL WITCHES. REAL WITCHES hate children and concoct ways to rid the world of as many children as possible. One day, the boy and his grandmother go to an English hotel for vacation. It just so happens that the annual meeting for all REAL WITCHES in England is at that very hotel.This was good fun and easy to read. It was very descriptive and the adventure unfolded brightly and clearly. Very nice escape for today.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book scared me when I was younger! My older cousin read me bits about the Witches and they terrified me. Later I read the whole thing myself and really enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was banned in England. But I’ll tell you it was an absolute delight! What fun!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    You can get to now about witches!!!!!! I love it!!!!!!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved it
    The only thing I would like
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Picked this up at the library because I saw it on the banned books shelf - can't imagine why anyone would be censoring this but then, none of the books chosen for banning make any sense. I probably would have enjoyed this more if reading as a child than an adult though I truly love Dahl's writing for adults.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It gets more charming in the second half, once it doesn't need to explain witches or their traits anymore. The book is a quick, fun read, but not Dahl's best, most eccentric work.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Essentially Danny The Champion of the World with magic instead of realism. Not as sweet as "Danny" but just as lovable. A mid-level solid Roald Dahl book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love ? the ??? and the part when you are looking at the grand high witch
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I saw others here on LT discussing this book recently and just had to read it. I remember the movie as a young child and how much fun it was; this book didn't disappoint. Dahl did a wonderful job of telling the absurd story of a young boy who learns about REAL WITCHES. REAL WITCHES hate children and concoct ways to rid the world of as many children as possible. One day, the boy and his grandmother go to an English hotel for vacation. It just so happens that the annual meeting for all REAL WITCHES in England is at that very hotel.This was good fun and easy to read. It was very descriptive and the adventure unfolded brightly and clearly. Very nice escape for today.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I saw the Witches mentioned in a challenge in a GoodReads group about books that had been made into movies. Though there was a vague sense of familiarity with the movie, an I'm-sure-I-saw-that vibe, I couldn't remember reading the book as a kid. I figured it would be a rather short read so I picked it up (thank you, Kindle) the other night.

    I don't think it was a favorite Dahl when I was a kid but I do remember some scenes from book and screen fondly enough. It was fun revisiting, anyway.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Cute, and very Dahl. It's an odd story, even for Dahl - and it ends with the beginning of a bigger story. The language is amusing - the long lists of synonyms for action, in particular. The boy (who never gets a name, as far as I can see) is mildly amusing and rather ordinary, though he does handle his transformation with great aplomb; his grandmother (who also never gets a name) is a much more extraordinary person. Though I don't see why she doesn't want to pass her information on to other "witchophiles" (wrong word, by the way - it means lover of witches, not studier of witches. Witchologist, perhaps, would have been better). It would be a way to deal with witches everywhere much faster than just the two of them going around. But all that is after this story ends, so maybe they will inform others, later.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was entertaining. A good young adult book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of my favorite Books ever.-Armycop123
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Dahl was one of my favorite authors as a child. The witches is about a young boy and his grandmother who have to defeat a whole coven of witches, including the Grand High Witch. It's a enjoyable tale and I still remember how to spot a witch- pointy shoes, wiggy hair, sparkling eyes and they spot children by their clean showered smell. Worth it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fantastic book for kids! So imaginative and creative. Easy read that children will find delightful!

    Roald Dahl is always brilliant! His stories and rhymes are fun and entertaining! Some of my all time favorites!! Such a great way to entertain children and get them interested in reading!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Probably my favorite Childrens book
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very fun adventure story. Maybe just under 4 stars but I liked it a lot and I'm very much looking forward to reading more Roald Dahl. Great story telling style.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Pretty interesting ideas.

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Another children's book I did not read as a child. There were definitely some fun parts to this ... but the choices the characters make are ... concerning. Like, really, that's your plan? And then end of the book, well, it's not as depressing as it could be, but it still kind of gets you down, at least at first. Not my favorite Dahl, but a fun one (for, perhaps, older children).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Brilliant, humourous great read for younger readers as well as older readers. I liked the way that Dahl has used fun language and expression to make the story come alive when reading it. The story is of a small boy (orphaned) who goes to live with his Norwegian grandmother in Norway. His cigar-smoking grandmother tells him about witches and how they spend their time plotting to get rid of children. She also tells him about witches and how to spot them although they all look like nice ladies, they are difficult but not impossible to spot. They all wear wigs to cover their bald heads, therefore have very itchy scalps, have square feet and wear gloves to hide their claw fingers. At the reading of the will it states that his parents wish for the boy (Dahl in his early years ????)to be brought up in England so the two emigrate. Upon arriving in England the grandmother decides that they both need a holiday before starting school. When the boy and his grandmother are at a Bournemouth hotel, other guests who are there for a conference, the lady-delegates to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children start scratching away. The boy is caught up behind a screen(due to being there when he shouldn't be) in the very room where these ladies are holding their conference. Then the pretty head lady takes off her mask: the Grand High Witch incarnate! To demonstrate her Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse-Maker, she's already fed some to greedy, obnoxious little Bruno Jenkins - who turns into a mouse on schedule. The Grand High Witch has concocted this potion to be put into sweets which will then be fed to all the children who will ultimately become mice, which will then be exterminated. Will Dahl be detected, hiding behind the screen? He hasn't washed in days, but some of that tell-tale child-scent, anathema to witches, escapes and they pounce on him. Forcefed the potion, he joins Bruno scampering about the floor - but they still have their own voices. Making back to his grandmother they plot a plan. He steals a bottle of the potion; pours it into the witch-delegates' soup tureen; and has the exquisite pleasure of seeing them turned into mice, to be wiped out on the spot by scared guests and angry chefs parrying pots, pans and knives. With this task complete and Dahl not being able to attend school as a mouse he and his grandmother return to Norway. Here he wonders if she'll live out his short mouse-life span, and she's plotting to get rid of the world's remaining witches.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I picked up a small bundle of childhood books to send off to a six year old -- but not before re-reading all of them ;)

    Roald Dahl was one of my favorite authors as a child, I soaked in every book I could get my tiny, grubby sticky fingers on. I savored every hilarious, perfect word in his books and The Witches was no exception. His brilliance is obvious, he speaks to children as you should - not as if they are idiots but as the blooming minds that they are.

    Who else could concoct a recipe that includes boiling the end of a telescope and roasting a preset alarm clock; to ensure your delayed-response potion goes off on time?

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I remember falling in love with this book and then watching the movie over and over and over and over and.....
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I probably would have loved this book as a child, but the story-telling style didn't work well with my adult sensibilities. Still, the tell-tale characteristics of witches were fun, and the witches' convention was a hoot. I read the Grand Witch's dialogue aloud to myself and couldn't help laughing as I did it.