63 – Mists of Iga by Kyle Mortensen

My brother, Kyle Mortensen, died unexpectedly last week at the age of only 37. He was a wonderful storyteller. He had a singular mix of wit, sarcasm, abrasiveness, affection, and insight, and all of these things bubbled together whether he was telling a story or writing one down. Kyle spent years researching the history of the people who lived in Iga province in medieval Japan, and from this grew a meticulously crafted work of historical fiction that he self-published a few years ago with the title Mists of Iga. It was intended to be the first in a series called Sons of Yōkai. I had planned to review this book when the sequel was ready to be published, but as that will now never happen, I would like to offer this small tribute to the writing of a good man, a wonderful husband and father, and a talented writer who should have had many more years to tell his stories to us all.

The themes and characters in Mists of Iga will appeal to teenagers, who will recognize the struggle of having growing skills and knowledge, but lacking the wisdom and experience to be seen as fully adult. The novel also shows the sort of strong, healthy masculine bonds that help boys grow into good men as two older shinobi take on the role of surrogate uncles to the orphaned sons of their friend and mentor. Set amidst the chaos of Japan in 1581 as Oda Nobunaga’s forces swept across the islands in an unstoppable conquest, Mists of Iga is a stirring tale of adventure and friendship told with wit, wry humor, and the unmistakable talent of a writer who will be dearly missed.

Get your copy of Mists of Iga on Amazon. All of the profits will go to Kyle’s wife and three young sons.

You can also donate to the Kyle Mortensen Memorial Scholarship Fund, which will be invested so that his sons can afford a good education one day.

Music in this Episode

“Kōjō no Tsuki” by Taki Rentarō

62 – Little Lord Fauntleroy Will See You in Court

Little Lord Fauntleroy, a charming story about the nicest kid ever, seems an unlikely subject for a landmark lawsuit. But Frances Hodgson Burnett’s tenacious defense of her rights to her own work forever changed copyright law in Britain, making things better for writers to this day.

Episodes of this show are usually about children’s stories themselves, but I thought it would be fun to share the history of what happened when theater producer E.V. Seebohm decided to rip off Little Lord Fauntleroy and put it on the stage in London, even though he had nothing to do with the book’s creation and its author directly refused her permission. At this point in history, authors had no way to stop unauthorized stage adaptations of their stories. Learn about Burnett’s tenacious defense of her rights and the creative legal strategy that helped win her case.

Activity: What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism means to copy someone else’s work and present it as your own. It’s a terrible idea, because when — not if — someone gets caught plagiarizing, irreparable harm can be done to their grades, reputation, and ability to find a job. It can also, as in the case of E.V. Seebohm’s plagiarized stage production of Little Lord Fauntleroy, result in trouble with the law.

Give children a short passage from Little Lord Fauntleroy to read, then help them to do the following:

  • Directly quote a sentence from the text, using correct punctuation and indicating the chapter number, title of the book, and the author.
  • Paraphrase a few lines from the text without exactly duplicating too many of the words, also indicating the chapter number, title of the book, and the author.
  • Plagiarize a sentence from Little Lord Fauntleroy by copying it partly or entirely into a sentence the student has written as the beginning of a new story.

Discuss the differences between direct quotation, paraphrase, and plagiarism with students, and tell them it is always best to ask for help if they aren’t sure if they have quoted or paraphrased a text correctly.

Sources Used in Research for This Episode

Nierman, Judith. (2010). Piracy Inspires “Real” Stage Version
of Children’s Classic. Copyright Notices, March 2010, p. 16. https://www.copyright.gov/history/lore/pdfs/201003%20CLore_March2010.pdf

Rogers, Edward S. (1902). The Law of Dramatic Copyright. Michigan Law Review, 1(2), pp. 102-120. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1272297.pdf

61 – Audiobook: “The Nightingale” by H.C. Andersen

Please enjoy my performance of “The Nightingale” by Hans Christian Andersen. I’ve done a fairly direct translation of the text from the original Danish. Andersen’s dry wit is difficult to convey, but I hope you get some idea of his writing style, even in another language.

The full text of this story can be found on its page, which is listed among other folk tales that I have recorded.

This audiobook is also available on YouTube:

60 – The Nightingale

“The Nightingale” by Hans Christian Andersen tells of an emperor who becomes enthralled with the song of a mechanical bird to the point that he can’t appreciate the song of the genuine article. In the end he comes to realize that human inventions, while impressive, lack the deeper beauty and emotional connection of natural life.

Illustration: “The Nightingale” by Ukrainian artist Georgi Ivanovich Narbut, 1912.

Activity: Reading questions for “The Nightingale”

Before reading “The Nightingale,” ask the following questions to help children prepare for the ideas they will encounter in the story. Children can give their answers in an informal discussion or in short written responses.

  • Have you ever felt pressure to say something was cool because all of your friends were saying so?
  • What would you do if there was something you really enjoyed, but which suddenly became unfashionable?
  • Would you hide the fact that you still liked it, would you stop enjoying it, or would you continue to enjoy it as before?
  • How would you deal with your friends when they told you that the thing you liked wasn’t cool anymore?
  • If you ignored a good friend for a while, would it be hard for you to admit that you had made a mistake and should have been a better friend?
  • Can you think of examples of technology that is pretty amazing, but might not be better than something from real life?

Return to these questions after reading, asking students to connect specific examples from the text to the answers they gave before reading the story.

59 – Censoring Roald Dahl

The works of Roald Dahl are being rewritten by Inclusive Minds at the request of Puffin Books and the Roald Dahl Story Company. Anything deemed offensive by modern-day censors is being deleted or altered, and entirely new writing is being added. In this episode, I explain how modifying Dahl’s writing results in a damaged, adulterated story, as well as give examples of how challenging texts can be adapted for younger writers in a way that is respectful and true to the author’s original work.

I try to keep this show far away from politics and can rarely be compelled to go anywhere near the culture wars, but my conscience wouldn’t let me remain silent while an act of literary vandalism was going on. I’ve included a transcript of this episode here because it’s important to me to be clear about how I feel about censorship and artistic integrity.


Transcript of The Children’s Literature Podcast
Episode 59
“Censoring Roald Dahl”
20 February 2023

This episode of the Children’s Literature Podcast is brought to you by a long, exasperated sigh.

Welcome to the Children’s Literature Podcast. I’m your host, T.Q. Townsend. This episode is called “Censoring Roald Dahl.”

So I had this nice little episode all ready for you about “The Nightingale” by Hans Christian Andersen. It’s a really lovely story about not losing sight of the beauty of nature and the value of personal relationships even if you’re being dazzled by amazing new technology, but I had to put it on hold for a week. I had to stop everything and write this episode about what Puffin Books have chosen to do to the books of Roald Dahl.

I find politics exhausting. I avoid culture war battles like the plague because they are never productive, they never seem to change anyone’s mind, and they tend just to make people think that having a difference of opinion makes it justifiable to hate someone. Living happily in my world of children’s stories, I mostly get to avoid all that. Children’s literature is magical because it is about characters and adventures that are usually blissfully unaware of adult nonsense. I intentionally keep this show G-rated and have, on several occasions, chosen not to do episodes which might have been good for ratings but wouldn’t have been good for my soul.

At the same time, my conscience won’t allow me to let this pass without offering some comments and a plea. Puffin Books has chosen to hire a company called Inclusive Minds to extensively edit the works of Roald Dahl. They have banished words like “fat” and “female” because these are apparently the new F words. The BFG is not allowed to wear a black cloak, and nobody is allowed to turn white with fear. I don’t understand what the problem is with either of these things, but it’s probably something something something . . . racism? In The Witches, an undercover witch is no longer working in a supermarket but is now a top scientist because something something something . . . women in STEM? “Boys and girls” have been expunged in favor of the word “children,” and Oompa Loompas are now gender neutral. I won’t bother listing every change because I don’t need high blood pressure and it would take too long, but there’s plenty of reporting on it now that the story has broken so you can read as much as you can tolerate. Puffin and Inclusive Minds are making the kind of ham-handed, tedious changes that prompt YouTubers to scream about how wokeness is destroying everything, and for blue-haired people on Twitter to start calling everyone bigots. It’s tedious and frustrating and it is no fun to talk about at all.

But we have to, because this cultural moment is out of control and it’s going to affect our children and the integrity of art.

The people who are vandalizing Roald Dahl’s books probably believe that they are doing a good thing that will protect children from harm. Anyone who ever burned a book, censored a piece of art, or put someone on a list of malefactors genuinely believed in the virtue of what they were doing. So you can’t rely on good intentions when it comes to deciding what should and shouldn’t be censored.

It is all too easy to find examples of dogmatic zealots who were guided by the idea that if they didn’t like something, then nobody else should be allowed to like it either. Anyone who disagrees is guilty of impure thoughts and they must be bullied into accepting the new orthodoxy. Book burnings were a regular feature in China during the Cultural Revolution, Germany during the reign of the Nazis, and in Russia during the Soviet Years. Book burning has even happened in western democracies. When Harry Potter books were first published, they were set ablaze by nuts who claimed to be Christians, and today they are burned by nuts who claim to be enlightened.

Puffin books is claiming that the rewriting of Dahl’s books is being done so that they “can continue to be enjoyed by all today.” Except nobody ever stopped enjoying them. Puffin’s statement either implies that people stopped enjoying the books because they have so many naughty ideas in them, which is false, or that people with good morals will want them to be sanitized, which is offensive to readers who think there is value to engaging with complicated stories by complicated people.

When changes are made to books for artistic reasons, that’s editing. When changes are made to books for ideological reasons, that’s censorship and the result is lousy stories. Here’s an example of this artistic adulteration in action. The good people at Inclusive Minds have banished the word “female.” In the novel Matilda, Miss Trunchbull is now no longer a “most formidable female” but a “most formidable woman.” This is a very small change. You might think it doesn’t matter and it oh-so-sensitively expunges a word associated with biology, which is no longer trendy, in favor of a word that is associated with identity politics, which is very trendy. But listen to the difference. “Most formidable female.” “Most formidable woman.” The original, unaltered, alliterative version sounds better. It has a reflexive quality to it. The sounds in “most” and “form” are dominated by the large, strong sounds of the letters O and M. Then the alliterative F sound moves in – “formidable female.” The second version starts off the same way but runs headlong into the word “woman” which has no matching vowel sounds and is slowed down by the sound of the letter W. The first version was better. It has rhythm and moves more quickly. It was an intentional artistic choice made by Roald Dahl. Altering it is like taking a razor blade and putting a single scratch on a beautiful painting. One nick won’t ruin the picture, but when you add up all the tiny mutilations, the overall effect will be catastrophic.

There can be examples of art which have been modified in a way that doesn’t result in vandalism. When Andy Weir’s novel The Martian became an instant smash hit, the author was told by many teachers that they would have loved to recommend the book to their students, but there is just too much bleepity-bleeping swearing in the book. I loved The Martian. It’s a finely crafted survival narrative that incorporates real science in a way that is accessible and gripping. But I agree with the criticism that there’s too much swearing. Some of it’s funny, but it’s also one of the least realistic parts of the book. NASA astronauts are unfailingly professional, and I don’t think they would curse on official communications, even if they were stranded on Mars. But it’s Andy Weir’s book and that’s how he wrote it, and I still really like it despite this minor flaw.

But I also wouldn’t recommend the original version to be read in class because of the swearing. It’s not that I think tender teenage ears can’t handle dirty words – I know what kind of language kids use outside class. Rather it’s that – and listeners who are teachers will be nodding along here – keeping students on task is hard enough without help from a book that gives them an excuse to be potty mouths in class. The original text of The Martian would give that student – you know the kid I mean – just the excuse needed to disrupt class by “faithfully quoting” lines with bad words. So Andy Weir did something really helpful, clever, and profitable. He put out a “young readers” edition that removed all the F-bombs. Some mild language still remains, but that’s not going to destroy fifth period English with rowdy giggling if it’s read out loud. The Martian is a book that can get teenagers stoked about space travel, reading, and even botany. The original author supervised and approved the changes, so the Young Readers Edition of The Martian should get a thumbs up from those of us who care about the integrity of art.

This is quite different from the censorship of people like Thomas Bowdler, who came out with editions of The Family Shakespeare in 1807 and 1818. Bowdler wanted to rewrite the works of the greatest author in the English language so they wouldn’t offend the delicate sensibilities of young ladies with their naughty references to S-E-X. The prudish changes break the poetic flow of some scenes, and they alter Shakespeare’s language for bad reasons. If a play isn’t appropriate for children, don’t read it to children and don’t take them to the theater to see it. Great works of art are worth the wait. Othello isn’t a play that should be seen by kindergarteners, but it will still be there waiting for them when they are seventeen.

This isn’t to say that Shakespeare can’t be adapted or edited down. Some of his plays are really, really, really long. A community theater group may not be able to present all seventeen hours of Hamlet. I’ve seen many Shakespeare productions that were skillfully trimmed down so that they weren’t too long for casual viewers or too difficult for a small theater company to stage. It’s also possible to faithfully condense Shakespeare stories for a young audience in a way that isn’t harmful to the original versions. On the bookshelf in my living room is a spectacular collection of fifteen slim books by Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross and published by Orchard Books. On the cover of each is the name of a Shakespeare play with the subtitle “A Shakespeare Story.” Each play has been retold in prose, remaining true to the story while not tampering with the bard’s iambic pentameter. There’s energetic illustrations on most of the pages, and plot points that are too adult are glossed over or softened to a child-appropriate level. They’re delightful adaptations. They even managed to do a version of Othello. And they’re a great example of how tricky content can be respectfully adapted in a way that honors the author’s original work.

Artists are shaped by their personal, cultural, and historical experiences. An author’s individual voice is special because of the unique path he or she has walked. If that author’s work grates too hard against your moral sensibilities, don’t read it. If you are concerned that the contents of a book might not be good for your children to read, then choose a different book for them to read. But don’t have the gall to think you should be the judge of what other people should be allowed to read.

The literary vandalism being carried out by Puffin Books and Inclusive Minds is a cynical, offensive act. These modifications show that they have no respect for Roald Dahl as an artist and think his writing is defective. Yet as much as they despise Dahl, they aren’t above profiting from his clearly valuable work.

To parents, teachers, librarians, and book lovers, I’d like to make this plea: If you don’t like what Roald Dahl wrote and you aren’t interested in the intellectual struggle required to encounter the complex work of a complex person, don’t read his books and don’t do anything to profit from them. It’s that simple. Please don’t reward literary vandalism by purchasing these adulterated versions, if and when they come out. Even if you agree with the moral positions of those exercising censorship, it’s still censorship. It’s wrong to change an artist’s work, regardless of the intentions behind those changes.

To Puffin Books, the Roald Dahl Story Company, and Inclusive Minds – not that any of you are interested in what I have to say – I will beg: Don’t rewrite Roald Dahl’s work and send the genuine articles down the Memory Hole. You’re just going to create inferior products that will distort readers’ understanding of great stories. You’re going to annoy Dahl’s fans and those who care about artistic integrity with your disrespect. And you will offend readers by implying that they are too stupid or too fragile to engage with challenging texts written by a complicated man so they need your protection.

I find the kind of people involved in this editing process to be puzzling. On one hand, they have the hubris to think they can do better than one of the greatest writers the English language has ever known. But on the other, despite feeling so strongly about the need for stories that appeal to modern audiences, they aren’t courageous enough to write their own stories. I suppose I can understand the people who hire these editors though. They’re in it for the money. They don’t mind if an author’s work is mutilated as long as they can make a quick buck.

I’m going to have to start taking better care of my Roald Dahl paperbacks and perhaps buy some backup copies of older editions. I hope those of you who love this author’s work can do the same. I’m sorry this episode was a bit of a downer. I try to keep this show really positive and use it as a place to share my passion for great books with all of you, but I had to take a moment to defend the integrity of those books or I won’t have anything left to be passionate about.

Censorship is wrong. It was wrong when the Soviets did it. It was wrong when Dr. Bowdler did it. And it’s wrong when “sensitivity experts” do it now, no matter how trendy their politics are. Roald Dahl deserves better, and I hope that parents, teachers, librarians, book lovers, and those who care about the integrity of art will speak up in his defense. Art is our cultural currency, and this editorial adulteration of Roald Dahl’s books is debasing the coinage. I want us to maintain a gold standard.

You’ve been listening to the Children’s Literature Podcast. Please subscribe and give the show a rating. Send comments to letters@childrensliteraturepodcast.com. I’m your host, T.Q. Townsend. Thanks for listening.

58 – Interview with Jonathan Emmett

Jonathan Emmett is February’s Leicestershire Author of the month! I really enjoyed our interview, in which we talk about his fun childhood spent using tools, his training as an architect, and how he blended his interests in problem-solving, design, and storytelling during his successful career as a children’s author.

Each month this year I will be featuring authors who are from Leicestershire or who live here, as my way of using the show and its growing audience to support writers in my local community. If this interview is any indicator of things to come, I’m going to have a lot of fun over the coming months speaking with really interesting people!

Jonathan grew up in Enderby, a village just on the southwestern outskirts of Leicester City. The librarian in Enderby fortunately had an eye for American authors like Maurice Sendak, P.D. Eastman, and Dr. Seuss, all of whom were a big influence on Jonathan as a child. His parents encouraged him not just to read, but to play with real tools, building and designing things from a young age. As he trained to become an architect, he learned that Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs were really useful in designing pop-up books, something he still does today.

This interview gives a glimpse into an interesting career, with sound advice for prospective authors and fun reflections on the importance of allowing just the slightest bit of danger into childhood.

You can learn more about Jonathan Emmett and the books he’s written at jonathanemmett.com. Follow him on Twitter at JonathanEmmett, Facebook at JonathanEmmettAuthor, and Instagram at jonathanemmett. He also has a YouTube channel and a Pinterest page.

Activity: Make A Pop-Up!

Jonathan Emmett doesn’t just write books — he designs them! His background as an architect helps him come up with clever designs for books that pop up into three dimensional pictures. Check out his page on how to make your own pop-up pages.

57 – Anne of Green Gables is Big in Japan

Akage no An, the Japanese translation of Anne of Green Gables, has remained wildly popular in Japan for 70 years. But why has a story about a redheaded orphan from Canada’s smallest province become such an essential part of Japanese literature? Hanako Muraoka, the translator who brought this book to her country, published this story at just the right time, when her war-torn nation was eager for a simple story about a girl with realistic struggles, dreams, and relationships.

In the second of two episodes about the impressive life of Hanako Muraoka, learn about how the translation of Anne of Green Gables was finally published and why it became so popular in Japan. Much of this story can only now be known because of the publication of Anne’s Cradle: The Life and Works of Hanako Muraoka, Japanese Translator of Anne of Green Gables. This engaging biography was written by Hanako’s granddaughter Eri Muraoka and has much to teach us about the power of literature to bring people together, even when they come from countries that were once enemies.

Activity: Discussion or Essay Questions for Anne’s Cradle

After reading chapters nine and ten of Anne’s Cradle, consider the following questions. Answers could come in the form of a class discussion, short reflection, or essay.

Chapter 9: Hanako had mixed feelings about her father’s death. Do you feel that he did a good or bad job as a father toward his children?

Chapter 10: Hanako gave her mother a Buddhist funeral, even though she herself was a Christian. What does this say about Hanako’s ability to understand and respect different beliefs?

56 – Hanako Muraoka

Hanako Muraoka is a name that is revered in Japan, but this remarkable woman is hardly known outside her home country. That should change with the publication of Anne’s Cradle: The Life and Works of Hanako Muraoka, Japanese Translator of Anne of Green Gables. This biography was written by Hanako’s granddaughter Eri Muraoka, and has been expressively translated into English by Cathy Hirano, who brought the phrase “spark joy” into existence when she translated The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. For more information about this book, check out its page over at Nimbus Publishing.

Hanako’s life is well worth discovering. Her life was burdened with many hardships. Born to a poor family, she grew up as a scholarship student in a boarding school with very few chances to see her family. As a devout Christian, she was a member of a stigmatized and mistrusted minority group during dangerous times. She lost loved ones to disease and war, yet always found a way to regain her faith in friendships and the power of books to bring people together. Her hard work led her to an impressive career as a teacher, writer, editor, translator, publisher, and radio host during a time when few women were permitted to be employed at all.

Just before the outbreak of World War II, a Canadian colleague presented Hanako with a parting gift before she fled the country to return home. It was a much-loved copy of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, which Hanako promised to translate into English. She kept the book secret during the war, hiding a work by a “foreign enemy” that could have gotten her into quite a lot of trouble. By the end of the war, this beautiful tale had been translated into eloquent, expressive Japanese.

This episode covers Hanako’s life until the end of World War II. In the next episode, I’ll conclude her tale, revealing how Anne of Green Gables became one of the most popular books in modern Japan.

In this episode I mentioned this heartwarming video made by the Embassy of Japan in Canada, where Eri Muraoka speaks a little about her grandmother and the reasons she worked so hard to translate Anne of Green Gables.

Activity: Discussion or Essay Questions for Anne’s Cradle

After reading the first eight chapters of Anne’s Cradle, consider the following questions. Answers could come in the form of a class discussion, short reflection, or essay.

Chapter 1: Hanako’s father was a very unconventional man. In what ways did this positively and negatively affect his abilities as a father?

Chapter 2: Hanako’s family was relatively poor and low status. When she arrived at her new boarding school she was suddenly surrounded by classmates who came from wealthy, even noble backgrounds. She had to learn not only to speak English but a higher-status style of Japanese. How would it have felt as a girl of only ten to suddenly experience such a change?

Chapter 3: In what ways did Hanako’s education and upbringing leave her well prepared to understand Anne of Green Gables when she eventually encountered the book?

Chapter 4: Hanako’s friend Asako Hirooka says, “I want you to use your education not just to raise your own status but to raise the status of every woman in Japan.” Hirooka’s goal was to gain full human rights for women, along with the ability to vote. Why would she have felt that high status women could not have helped her cause by remaining focused on their own achievements? Can holding up the achievements of a few exceptional women serve as a distraction from broader issues affecting women as a class of people?

Chapter 5: Keizo Muraoka remained in a difficult position, still legally married to a wife he had not seen in three years but concerned about his religious prohibition on divorce. Was it fair to Keizo and Hanako to have referred to their early attraction as an “illicit affair”? Should they have felt so much guilt about their relationship? The text remains silent as to the first wife’s wishes or opinion regarding the divorce. Is it possible to imagine what opinions she might have held?

Chapter 6: Much of Hanako’s career success came from her ability to spot gaps in existing markets and find niches for herself to work in. How did she leverage business, personal, and community connections to find roles she was uniquely suited to fill?

Chapter 7: When Hanako is offered a job as a radio host, she turns to her husband Keizo for advice. How does their conversation demonstrate that they had a very effective partnership?

Chapter 8: For nine years, Hanako was a major radio star, famous across the nation for her children’s news program. During World War II, rather than read out government propaganda, Hanako quit her job. Would you have been able to not only turn away from a great career, but put yourself at risk by showing that you did not support a totalitarian government?

55 – The Italian Cinderella

“Cenerentola” by Giambattista Basile is the first Cinderella story recorded in Europe. It is not as famous as its descendants as written down by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, but it’s worth discovering because this Cinderella has the guts to speak up for herself, and her friendship with the fairies of the island of Sardinia help her to show the king her true worth.

The audio and text of this story is available at childrensliteraturepodcast.com/folk-tales/cenerentola/.

Activity: Where is Sardinia?

Before reading “Cenerentola,” look at a map of the Mediterranean region. Identify the island of Sardinia and its location relative to the Italian peninsula. Find a map that shows the political boundaries of nations in this part of the world during the 1600’s. Students should note that Italy was not a unified nation at this point in history, but rather a complicated patchwork of states divided between many different rulers.

After reading “Cenerentola,” discuss why it would have made sense for Cenerentola’s father to travel to Sardinia. Its position makes it easy to reach from many nations, which would make it easier for leaders of these lands to maintain friendly relations and make agreements about trade and travel. This would make it a good location for trade, which was why the father knew he would be able to find beautiful things for his stepdaughters there.

Depending on the age and interest of the student, further research could be conducted on Sardinia’s geographical traits as well as its importance to politics and trade during the Renaissance.

Activity: Punishment or Forgiveness?

400 years ago in Renaissance Italy, kings and queens would have had a lot of power. It would have been possible for them to give any sort of reward or punishment. In “Cenerentola,” a prince badly mistreats his daughter. Later, the young king marries her. As the new queen, Zezolla would have had the power to do whatever she liked to her father, stepmother, and stepsisters, all of whom mistreated her.

After reading “Cenerentola” with your kids, ask one or more of the following questions. Answers may come through a discussion, as a short written response, or in an essay.

      • If you were Queen Zezolla, would you consider punishing your wicked family members? Would you consider any punishment for them? Anything would be possible; banishment from court, loss of lands or titles, fines, imprisonment, banishment from the land, or even death.
      • Would you consider forgiving your rotten relatives? Would it be foolish to be too forgiving, or would it show nobility?
      • What actions, if any, could Zezolla’s family members take to make up for how they have behaved?
      • Do you think Queen Zezolla’s subjects would approve of her punishing or forgiving her cruel family members?

54 – Matilda: An Adaptation of an Adaptation

This week I am joined by co-host Chloë Townsend. Adaptations of beloved stories don’t always go well, but that’s not the case with Matilda: The Musical or the recent film adaptation! After a chaotic holiday season, my daughter and I finally managed to go to the movies, and here’s our thoughts on this thoroughly delightful film, which is based on Roald Dahl’s final novel.

You can watch Matilda: The Musical with your kids and then talk about how adaptations will always be slightly different from the source material. As long as the original story is treated with respect and changes are made with care, that’s ok! Here are our notes from watching the film. You can make similar notes using the printable form in the activity below.

What things were in the novel but missing from the film?

Matilda’s brother Michael has been written out. There were also many scenes which describe Matilda sitting quietly and reading, but it makes sense to remove them because watching someone sit and read is not very good for a stage show or movie.

What things were missing from the novel but added to the film?

The story about the Escapologists was added, as well as Matilda’s even stronger telepathic abilities. In the book, Miss Trunchbull runs out of the school after Matilda uses her mind to trick her into thinking that the ghost of Magnus is writing with chalk. In the film, Matilda uses her powers to create a physical representation of Magnus using chains, and then braids Miss Trunchbull’s hair before tossing her out of the school. These additions take advantage of the special effects available to filmmakers and make the scene more visually dramatic for viewers. They are big additions, but they are in keeping with the spirit of the original scene.

What things were in the novel but changed a little bit in the film?

Mr. Wormwood’s hair is not bleached but rather turns green. Green would show up better and look more comical onstage, and the bright color also worked well on film. Also, in the book he cuts up his hat after it is glued to his head. In the film, he keeps the hat on until Matilda releases it. This is as slight difference from the book, but it gives Matilda a nice chance to show forgiveness toward her father at the end of the story.

What actor most closely matched the character from the book?

Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull. The makeup team deserves a lot of praise as they were able to give her false teeth and many face prosthetics, but they looked completely natural and didn’t create a rubbery appearance. Despite not being a broadway singer, Thompson gave an excellent vocal performance, which was helped along by the fact that the role is well suited to speaking and shouting many lines from songs. It was also interesting to see this actor in a role as a large, loud, ugly buly, as she often plays characters that are good, quiet, and even timid.

Andrea Riseborough should also be mentioned in her role as Mrs. Wormwood. It would be very easy for this character to be uninteresting or even unlikeable, but she played the part for laughs very well.

Which actor least matched the character from the book?

Lashana Lynch, but only physically. The actor was able to portray Miss Honey’s emotions and personality quite well, but she was less of a physical match for the character as described in the book. Lynch is quite tall and is extremely athletic. She is very physically strong and usually plays characters like super heroes, soldiers, and spies. An important contrast in the book is between Miss Trunchbull’s large and strong body and Miss Honey’s thin, frail one. For many years, Miss Trunchbull made sure that Miss Honey stayed weak, even to the point of making sure Miss Honey never had enough to eat. A very important moment for Matilda in the book is when she realizes that Miss Honey only eats one meal a day as a result of her aunt’s cruelty and controlling behavior. It would not be possible for Miss Honey to look so healthy or strong, as this would require plenty of nutritious food to eat and a regular exercise routine. However, this difference isn’t a fatal flaw to the musical, just a noticeable difference.

What moment from the book was best interpreted in the film version?

The song “Naughty” really portrays Matilda’s spirit. She refuses to allow the adults in her life to mistreat her, and so she decides to “change her story” by using the tools she has to get away from their control. Roald Dahl would likely have approved of this song, as a major theme of Matilda is the idea that bullies should not be obeyed simply because they happen to be in charge.

Activity: Examine an Adaptation

After reading Matilda by Roald Dahl, watch the film version of Matilda: The Musical. Use this worksheet to note changes to the story as well as choices made by the film’s production team. Use the worksheet to start a discussion or prompt an essay about how effectively the novel was adapted into a musical and then into a film, and what decisions helped or hindered the artistic efforts of the filmmakers.