The Magic Finger Kate Winslet

[Kristin Klodzinski]

Penguinpresents the audiobook edition of Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl, read by Miriam Margolyes, Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig. You can think again if you thought you knew the stories of some of the most popular fairy tales. Here are six of the best known retold, with more than a twist or two, by the master of the comic and the blood-curdling.

A boy who only gets to eat cabbage soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner finds a Golden Ticket that will take him into Willy Wonka's magical chocolate factory. Joining him on the tour are four horrible blighters: Augustus Gloop - a great big greedy nincompoop, Veruca Salt - a spoiled brat, Violet Beauregarde - a repulsive little gum-chewer and Mike Teavee - a TV addict. With a chocolate river, crafty squirrels and mysterious Oompa Loompas, Mr Wonka's chocolate factory is the strangest, most magnificent place Charlie has ever seen.

Every Saturday morning the Gregg family goes off to shoot animals and birds. But the girl who lives next door hates hunting. Now it's made her so angry that she's put the magic finger on them all. And very strange things have begun to happen.

The kingdom of Cornucopia was once the happiest in the world. It had plenty of gold, a king with the finest moustache you could possibly imagine, and butchers, bakers, and cheesemongers whose exquisite foods made a person dance with delight when they ate them. Everything was perfect - except for the misty Marshlands to the north, which, according to legend, were home to the monstrous Ickabog. Anyone sensible knew that the Ickabog was just a myth to scare children into behaving. But the funny thing about myths is that sometimes they take on a life of their own.

Book 1: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, better known and loved today as simply The Wizard of Oz, is a tale that has been cherished by readers and listeners throughout the years. This timeless story has inspired Broadway shows, cartoon series, and many films over the past few generations. I hope that this book has inspired your sense of creativity and wonder as much as it has mine.

Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into a new year and a new school where undersize weaklings share the corridors with kids who are taller, meaner and already shaving. Desperate to prove his new found maturity, which only going up a grade can bring, Greg is happy to have his not-quite-so-cool sidekick, Rowley, along for the ride. But when Rowley's star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend's popularity to his own advantage. Recorded in his diary with comic pictures and his very own words, this test of Greg and Rowley's friendship unfolds with hilarious results.

Millions of young listeners have loved the World's Worst Children tales. Now they will revel in this delightfully dreadful collection of the most gruesome grown-ups ever: The World's Worst Teachers. Think your teachers are bad? Wait till you meet this lot. These 10 tales of the world's most splendidly sinister teachers will have you running for the school gates. Dr Dread teaches science and is half man, half monster. Watch out for the ghastly Miss Seethe. She is always furious and she's on a detention rampage.

When an eight-year-old girl and her six-year-old brother take turns describing each other, it's no surprise that "The Pain" and "The Great One" are the nicknames that emerge. As this duo debates whom Mom and Dad love most, their competition becomes increasingly humorous - because when it comes to family affection, there's no such thing as win or lose.

Mary Lennox starts her life as an unhappy victim of circumstance. After the loss of her parents, she moves to rural Yorkshire to live with a distant uncle where she resents the wildness of the countryside. At first, she struggles to find a place in this new existence. Although unsure about her surroundings and its occupants, through the gentle guidance of the maid she gradually becomes interested in the story of Mrs Craven, who apparently used to spend her time in a garden at the house, the key to which has vanished.

The Magic Finger is a 1966 children's story by British author Roald Dahl.[3][4] First published in the United States by Harper & Row with illustrations by William Pne du Bois,[1][5] Allen & Unwin published the first U.K. edition in 1968.[2] Later editions have been illustrated by Pat Marriott, Tony Ross, and Quentin Blake.[5] The novel was adapted into a 1990 TV special on ITV (CITV).[6] The author Roald Dahl narrated an unabridged recording for Harper Children Audio[7] and Kate Winslet narrated an unabridged recording in 2013 for Penguin Audio.[8]

The Magic Finger is narrated by an unnamed 8-year-old girl who is growing up on a remote rural farm in the English countryside, next door to the Gregg family who have a passion for hunting animals and birds. The titular "Magic Finger" is an ability she has that activates inadvertently whenever she gets angry: the finger itself shoots out a beam of electrical energy that apparently seeks out whoever has angered the girl, with unpredictable consequences. For example, when the girl's teacher shames her for misspelling the word "cat", the magic finger gives her whiskers and a bushy tail, and the girl cryptically states that she was never quite the same again.

One day, the girl sees Mr. Gregg and his two sons, Philip and William, returning home from a hunt with a deer that they have just killed, and they make fun of her when she shouts at them. In a rage, the girl puts the Magic Finger itself on the entire family; when they wake up the following morning they have shrunk to bird-size and developed "ducks' wings" in place of their arms and hands. While trying out their new wings, the Greggs fly out of their beloved house, which is promptly occupied by four human-sized ducks with human arms and human hands, and they are all soon forced to build a nest in an old tree for the night.

The following morning, the Greggs all find that, in a major reversal of their habits, three out of four of the ducks are holding the Greggs' hunting guns in their hands. Desperately, Mr and Mrs Gregg both persuade the ducks not to shoot them, but the mother duck (the only duck who never holds a gun) taunts them about their own fondness for shooting, especially since the previous day, they somehow shot all 6 of the duck's precious children. Mr Gregg tells the duck mother to give up shooting and he destroys all 3 guns with a big hammer, swearing never to hurt another duck, deer "or anything else again". The four ducks then head back toward the lake where they live, before letting the Greggs leave their tree. Then, the Greggs all find themselves returned to normal by magic.

The 8-year-old girl comes by the Greggs' farm to see that the Gregg family (now changing their surname to Egg) have fully changed their ways and are now feeding and caring for the birds. As Philip and William tell the girl their entire story, the sound of gunfire in the distance attracts the girl's attention, and she feels the Magic Finger charging up again.

Brought to you by Penguin.

Last week, something very funny happened to the Gregg family.

This edition of The Magic Finger, part of The Roald Dahl Classic Collection, is perfect for Dahl fans old and new.

So, enter a world where invention and mischief can be found on every page and where magic might be at the very tips of your fingers . . .

The Roald Dahl Classic Collection reinstates the versions of Dahl's books that were published before the 2022 Puffin editions, aimed at newly independent young readers.

2014 Roald Dahl (P)2014 Penguin Audio

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