I'm reading Matilda to my five-year-old but my husband thinks she is too young and that we should wait until she is seven. Is five too young to enjoy Matilda?
I hate to be the arbiter in a family dispute about the suitability of a book for a particular child – especially based on age – but, if I have to take sides, I'd agree with your husband (and go against the recommendation in my own 1001 Children's Books in which Matilda is listed as a 5+ title).
While there is much in Matilda that a five-year-old would enjoy – primarily Matilda herself and, of course, her lovely relationship with the wonderful Miss Honey – there is also a lot in the book that is Dahl at his most brutal and his most snobbish. The way in which Miss Trunchbull is portrayed could just be plain scary for a five-year-old and might raise anxieties about school which would be entirely misplaced. She is one of the great caricatures of children's literature but readers need to be old enough to recognise that she bears little resemblance to anybody "real"; a child needs a certain amount of sophistication to be able to make the distinction.
The snobbery is evident in the classist jokes about Matilda's vulgarian family, and would probably just wash over the head of a five-year-old, but behind them lie the less attractive elements of Dahl's views about the aspiring classes he despises. These appear also in his descriptions of Mike Teevee and Verucca Salt, the less-favoured children in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Dahl's humour and warmth is always infectious and can delight readers of all ages, but his sophistication should never be overlooked. Even in The Magic Finger and The Enormous Crocodile, two of his books which are excellent for five-year-olds, he teases and dares his readers far more than most writers for that age group – and he is brutal there too.
Following the success of the fabulous stage version of Matilda, I am sure many families are eagerly reading the book, which is to be expected but it may be worth remembering that when Matilda came out in 1988 it was the "must read" for children in years five and six, so nine or ten rather than five.
