Review · 15 October 2026
Matilda (1996)School, books and reading
🎯 Today’s focus
The everyday English of school, books and reading — the words you need at the library, in class, and when a friend asks you what you are reading. Five words and phrases you will need to talk about the book by your bed and your school days without a mistake, and every one of them appears in the story before it is explained.
🎬 Episode script
Transcript
4 chapters · about 5 minutes of reading🎭 Intro
Welcome back for another English movie review lesson — I’m Teacher Teddy, and today, let’s talk about Matilda.
Today’s lesson is about school, books and reading: the words you need at the library, in class, and when a friend asks you what you are reading. By the end of this video, you’ll talk about the book by your bed, and your school days, without a mistake. And listen out for one moment in particular. Matilda walks into the library to borrow a book, and the librarian tells her she can take books home.
Matilda Wormwood is six, and she has read more books than her whole family put together. Her father thinks books are a waste of time. One day he tears one of hers to pieces. What would you do if someone tore up the book you were reading?
The story begins in a house where nobody reads. Matilda is born clever, and nobody else in the house is. Her mother plays bingo, her father sells old cars and lies about them, and her brother watches television. When Matilda asks for a book, her father points at the screen and tells her to be quiet.
📜 Plot & how the story is told
The story begins in a house where nobody reads. Matilda is born clever, and nobody else in the house is. Her mother plays bingo, her father sells old cars and lies about them, and her brother watches television. When Matilda asks for a book, her father points at the screen and tells her to be quiet.
So she finds her own books. At four years old, Matilda walks to the library on her own. The librarian says she can take books home. So she learns how to “borrow a book”. This is the moment to listen for. To borrow something is to take it, use it, and give it back later. Now the classic mistake: “Can you borrow me this book?” That is wrong. You borrow FROM someone, and they lend TO you. So say, “Can you lend me this book?” Used in real life: “Can I borrow a book? I’ll give it back on Friday.”
Matilda borrows book after book and takes them home in a red wagon. Soon she is “a bookworm”. A bookworm is a person who loves reading more than anything. It is a kind word, and you can say it about yourself. In Britain, we soften it with “a bit of”: “I’m a bit of a bookworm.” That sounds friendly, not proud. Used in real life: “I’m a bit of a bookworm, so a bookshop is my favourite place.”
Every night in bed, Matilda reads one more “chapter”. A chapter is one part of a book. Say “I’m on chapter three” to show how far you have got, or “a chapter a night” for a habit. Used in real life: “I’m on chapter three. Don’t tell me what happens!”
Then her father tears up a library book, and the television blows up: Matilda can move things with her mind. At last she goes to school, and her teacher, Miss Honey, is kind and quiet. Like every teacher in the world, Miss Honey sends her class home with one instruction: “do your homework”. Homework is school work that you do at home. We DO homework; we never make it. And homework has no plural: it is never “homeworks”. Used in real life: “I can’t come out tonight. I have to do my homework.”
Miss Honey sees what this child can do: hard sums in her head, and books that most grown-ups have never opened. A reader meets new words every day. There is one thing to do with a new word: “look it up”. To look something up is to find a word or a fact in a book or on your phone. The small word goes in the middle: “look it up”, never “look up it”. Used in real life: “I don’t know what that means. I’ll look it up.”
The school is run by Miss Agatha Trunchbull, the headmistress, or principal in America. She is a champion at throwing the hammer. She hates children. It is all big and silly, and nobody is hurt. Matilda has already paid her father back with strong glue in his hat. What Matilda and Miss Honey learn about Miss Trunchbull, and how a very small girl deals with a very large headmistress — I won’t tell you here. What I can tell you is that my favourite scene has no magic in it: two people in a small house, drinking tea from cups with no handles.
📖 Vocabulary spotlight
This episode also has three bonus vocabulary words — the words real critics reached for when they wrote about this film, and the ones you’ll want when you talk about it yourself.
First: “precocious” — far cleverer than other children of the same age. Time Out called its heroine precocious and bright. Used in real life: “He was a precocious child, playing the piano at three.”
Second: “wicked” — bad or cruel, but in a way that is fun to watch. The Baltimore Sun called the film wickedly delicious, and Miss Trunchbull is as wicked as they come. Used in real life: “The queen in that film is properly wicked.”
Third: “twisted” — strange and a little nasty, in a way that can be fun. Variety called it a delightfully twisted fairy tale. Used in real life: “That joke was a bit twisted, but I laughed.”
💬 Critic reception
Now, let’s talk about how critics have described Matilda.
The words reviewers reach for are the three bonus words above. Time Out saw a young heroine who is sharp and quick, far ahead of every child her age. Writing in The Baltimore Sun, the reviewer enjoyed how much fun the film has with cruelty, and the headmistress gives that cruelty a face you love to hate. Variety, for its part, treated the film as an old-style tale for children with a strange, slightly nasty bend in it, and meant that as warm praise.
Now the whole story again, with every word from today in it. See how many you can catch. Matilda walks to the library at four to borrow a book. Soon she is a bookworm who reads a chapter a night. Her father tears up a library book, the television blows up, and she finds her power. At school, Miss Honey tells the class to do their homework, and Matilda has finished before it starts. And when you meet a word you do not know, look it up. Matilda is precocious, Miss Trunchbull is wicked, and the whole film is a little twisted.
⭐ The verdict
Rating
As a film, it is wicked in the best way: the grown-ups are cruel, the jokes are nasty and warm at once, and the smallest person in every room is the cleverest. For English learners it is friendly rather than easy, because a narrator tells much of the story in short, plain sentences and the quiet talks between Matilda and Miss Honey are soft and slow, but Miss Trunchbull shouts, and shouting is hard to follow. Start with the library scenes, keep a dictionary close for any word you miss, and enjoy a film that makes reading look like magic.
Rated PG in the UK · A2–B1
📚 Study tools
Learning focus recap
Five words and phrases for school, books and reading, each with a fresh example — plus the three bonus words.
To take a book, use it, and give it back later.
You can borrow a book from the school library for two weeks.
A person who loves reading more than anything.
My little brother is a real bookworm, and he even reads at the breakfast table.
One part of a book.
I only meant to read one chapter, but I finished the whole book before midnight.
To do the school work that you do at home.
Please do your homework before you turn on the computer.
To find a word or a fact in a book or on your phone.
I wasn’t sure when the library closes, so I looked it up online.
A simple way to remember it all: at the library you borrow a book from the librarian, and the librarian lends it to you. Someone who loves reading more than anything is a bookworm, and a bookworm reads at least a chapter a night. At school, the teacher tells you to do your homework: we do it, we never make it, and there is no plural. And when you meet a new word, look it up, with the small word in the middle.
📖 Bonus words
Precocious
Far cleverer than other children of the same age.
Wicked
Bad or cruel, but in a way that is fun to watch.
Twisted
Strange and a little nasty, in a way that can be fun.
✏️ Practice
Fill in the blank
0 of 5 correctType the missing word or phrase from this episode, then check. Stuck? Tap Hint to see three options.
At four years old, Matilda walks to the library to a book: to take it, use it, and give it back later.
Matilda reads book after book, so soon she is a , a person who loves reading more than anything.
Every night in bed, Matilda reads one more , which is one part of a book.
Miss Honey sends her class home with one instruction: your homework.
When you meet a new word, look it : find it in a book or on your phone, with the small word in the middle.
🧠 Check you understood
Comprehension questions
0 of 6 answeredWhy does Matilda walk to the library on her own at four years old?
- Her teacher sends her there after school
- Nobody at home reads, and her father will not give her a book
- She has to return a book for her brother
How does Matilda carry her library books home?
- In a red wagon
- In one of her father’s old cars
- In a school bag from Miss Honey
You want a friend to give you their book for a week. Which question is correct?
- Can you borrow me this book?
- Can you borrow this book to me?
- Can you lend me this book?
Which sentence is correct English?
- I have to make my homework tonight.
- I have to do my homework tonight.
- I have to do my homeworks tonight.
You hear a new word and want to find its meaning. What do you say?
- I’ll look up it.
- I’ll it look up.
- I’ll look it up.
Who runs the school that Matilda goes to?
- Miss Agatha Trunchbull, the headmistress
- Miss Honey, Matilda’s kind teacher
- The librarian from the town library
✍️ Your turn
Try it yourself in the comments
At the start I asked what you would do if someone tore up the book you were reading. Matilda glued her father’s hat to his head. If it were you, what would you do the next morning? Write two sentences in the comments here or on the website, and use “borrow a book” or “a bookworm” in one of them.
For example: “The next morning I would walk straight to the library and borrow a book that was even longer. Then I would read it at the kitchen table, because a real bookworm never gives up.”Write a comment ↓📚 Keep learning
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