KS2 English: Roald Dahl's 'Matilda' read by Eniola Aluko

"Matilda!" she barked."Stand up."

"Who, me?" Matilda said."What have I done?"

"Stand upyou disgusting little cockroach!"

"I haven't done anything,Miss Trunchbull. Honestly, I haven't.

I've never seen anything thatslimy before.""Stand up at once youfilthy little maggot!"

Reluctantly,Matilda got to her feet.She was in the second row.Lavender was in the row behind her,feeling a bit guilty.She hadn't intended to gether friend into trouble.On the other hand,she was certainly not about own up.

"You're a vile, repulsive,repellent, malicious little brute!"the Trunchbull was shouting."You're not fit to be in this school.You ought to be behind bars.That's where you ought to be.I shall have you drummed out of thisestablishment in utter disgrace.I shall have the prefects chaseyou down the corridor and outof the front door with hockey sticks!I shall have the staff escort youhome under armed guard and thenI shall make absolutely sure youare sent to the Reformatory forDelinquent Girls for the minimumof forty years!" The Trunchbull wasin such a rage that her face hadtaken on a boiled colour and littleflecks of froth were gatheringat the corners of her mouth,but she was not the onlyone who's losing her cool.Matilda was also beginning tosee red. She didn't in the leastmind being accused of having donesomething she'd actually done.She could see the justice of that.It was, however,a totally new experience for herto be accused of a crime that shedefinitely had not committed.She'd had absolutely nothing todo with that beastly creature inthe glass. By golly, she thought,that rotten Trunchbull isn'tgoing to pin this one on me.

"I did not do it!" she screamed.

"Oh, yes you did!" theTrunchbull roared back."Nobody else could havethought up a trick like that.Your father was right to warn meabout you." The woman seemed to havelost control of herself completely.She was ranting like a maniac.

"You are finished in this school,young lady!" she shouted."You are finished everywhere!I shall personally see to itthat you are put away in a placewhere not even the crows canland their droppings on you.You'll probably never see the lightof day again!"

I'm telling you,I did not do it!" Matilda screamed."I've never seen a creature likethat in my life."

"You've put a crocodile in my drinkingwater!" the Trunchbull yelled back."There's no worse crime in theworld against a headmistress.Now, sit down and don't say a word.Go on. Sit down at once!"

"But I'm telling you,"Matilda shouted,refusing to sit down, "I'm telling you…"

"Shut up!" the Trunchbull roared."If you don't shut up at once and sitdown, I shall remove my belt and letyou have it with the end that has thebuckle." Slowly, Matilda sat down.

Oh the rottenness of it all,the unfairness.How dare they expel her forsomething she had not done!Matilda felt herself gettingangrier and angrier and angrier.So unbearably angry that somethingwas bound to explode inside hervery soon. The newt was stillsquirming in the tall glass of water.It looked horribly uncomfortable.The glass was not big enough for it.Matilda glared down at Trunchbull.How she hated her.She glared at the glass with a newtin it. She longed to march up andgrab the glass and tip the contents,newt and all, over Trunchbull's head.She trembled to think whatthe Trunchbull would doto her if she did that.

The Trunchbull was sitting behindthe teacher's table, staring witha mixture of horror and fascinationat the newt wriggling in the glass.Matilda's eyes were also riveted onthe glass. And now, quite slowly,there began to creep overMatilda a most extraordinaryand peculiar feeling.The feeling was mostly in the eyes.A kind of electricity seemedto be gathering inside them.A sense of power was brewing inthose eyes of hers. A feeling ofgreat strength was settling inside,deep inside her eyes.

But there was also another feelingwhich was something else altogetherand which she could not understand.It was like flashes of lightning.Little waves of lightning seemedto be flashing out of her eyes.Her eyeballs were beginning toget hot as though vast energy wasbuilding up somewhere inside them.It was an amazing sensation.