Thanks to Net Galley and to St. Martin’s Griffin for providing me a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

When I read this book was a modern take of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing for young adults I could not resist. It’s one of my favourite Shakespeare’s comedies and it’s had pretty good adaptations to screen. I am very partial to Ten Things I Hate About You and I hoped this would be as good if not better.

Told in the first person, this novel’s narrator is Trixie (Beatrix, of course), who is a fiercely intelligent and feisty shrew. She’s a geek, loves comic books, TV series (Dr Who among them), and attends a school for gifted youngsters, that is a fascinating ecosystem, with its own rules, its fights for top position and ranking, and it’s aristocracy (all based on merit, intelligence and hard work).  Her two friends, Harper and Meg, are also very clever but very different to her in their unique ways (Harper, who is kind to a fault, lost her mother years back and her family life is fairly empty despite the money, and Meg’s psychologist parents seem to track any behaviours that might fit in some theory or other, and she is always trying to classify friends and actions around her as if they took place in a lab). Of course, there would be no school without boys, and Trixie has a long-term enmity with Benedict (Ben), who shares many of her hobbies and dislikes but who can’t open his mouth without aggravating her. Everybody but the two people involved know the pair are a perfect match, but making them see it proves a hard task. Students start getting suspended and they don’t realise at first that behind exams, essays, tests, balls and functions, there is somebody messing up with pupils’ results with dramatic consequences.

The characters are as clever as is to be expected from the school they attend, and at their age, they know everything. Their references to both pop culture and Culture with capital letters are flawless, witty and make for a great read. The dialogue is fast, clever, and funny (I must confess to laughing out loud quite a few times), and appropriate to the age of the characters. Although they are clever, they are also young, naïve, and at times very innocent and that makes them plausible teenagers. They are friends of their friends, they confront serious moral issues (for their age) and they are articulate, wholesome but sometimes mean.

I remember talking about a young adult book to a reader who told me he couldn’t remember having met girls as clever as the ones in the book. Well, I did, and although perhaps the interests might vary depending on the person and the era of our school years, I appreciate a young adult book where the young protagonists are clever, study, and care for each other. And are very funny too.

I thoroughly recommend this book to anybody who likes high-school young adult novels (I have no doubts adults will like it too), and I’m sure people who enjoy Shakespeare and pop culture references will have a field day. And I look forward to more books by the writer.

I never read Matilda as a child, but I do recall seeing the movie. I enjoyed the movie, so it was natural for this to be my first experience with Roald Dahl. Matilda is named for its heroine, an extraordinary girl who uses her mind to help her favorite teacher, Miss Honey. Now that I’ve gotten a taste of Dahl’s stories, I think I’ll be coming back for more. Penguin Audio is also making it pretty easy for me since I got all their new audio editions of his books in the mail.

Matilda is a brilliant child. She’s reading Dickens by the age of four! It was enough for me to get through Dickens at the age of twenty-two, though Great Expectations became one of my favorite novels after I finally got through it. Matilda likes it, too. She loves to read and she’s pretty wonderful at it. She’s also really good at math, which is what first catches Miss Honey’s attention. Miss Trunchbull, the headmistress, isn’t as impressed by Matilda. In all fairness, she isn’t impressed by much at all. She saves all her energy for making the students at Crunchem Hall miserable, and Matilda is getting tired of it.

The quirky feel and just-beyond-real plot is perfect for children. What I really love about Dahl’s book is that it’s enjoyable for everyone. The target audience is certainly children, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Something I often find very frustrating with children’s chapter books or middle grade fiction is the elementary writing. Yes, children should be able to read and understand the book; I also think it should be well written. I shouldn’t feel like I’m reading a children’s story the whole time. I should be so immersed in the story that I’m not even worried about that. Dahl achieves that. He wrote a book that’s accessible and enjoyable to a large range of readers. His use of the ridiculous or the miraculous among the ordinary reminds me a little of Lewis Carroll, though on a much smaller scale. I also got the sense that he has inspired a lot of children’s authors, and I can understand why. He wrote some of the most famous and lauded children’s stories in history. I can’t wait to read more of them.

This new audio edition was read by Kate Winslet. Hopefully, I don’t need to explain who that is. I think seeing her name on the packaging is another detail that led me to begin with this book. There’s no doubt that Winslet is a great actress. Still, I’m very impressed. She gave a fully-voiced performance, and those voices were awesome. The speech was perfect: syntax, pacing, emotional tone. It was all great. Major kudos for such a great performance. The production was mostly good. I liked the music. It fit the story really well. I think the volume was a little inconsistent. Miss Trunchbull was always really loud compared to the narration and the other characters. That’s a very small complaint. It’s nothing that makes or breaks the audio. In fact, I highly recommend the audio.

I think there are great reasons for reading this in print, especially if it’s a child reading. That’s just part of developing reading skills. IF you have some pretty small children who aren’t read for this text, the audiobook is a great way for them to experience the story. I also recommend it to anyone who might want to reread this book or experience it in a different way. This is a great book for anyone, print or audio.