The best parts are when Matilda exacts her revenge on some of the less savory characters in the novel. These are the parts that Roald Dahl really goes to town with his imagination.

Matilda puts superglue into her father's hat so that he needs his wife to help him painfully rip it off. She borrows her friend's parrot and hides it in the house. When it says hello she pretends to go along with her family that they have an intruder in the house, or, worse, a ghost. At the end of the book, she uses her newly found telekinetic powers to lift a piece of chalk in the air and write a message on the blackboard telling the nasty Miss Trunchball to give the lovely Miss Honey her inheritage back.

There are other memorable episodes involving Miss Trunchball in chapter 10 and chapter 11. In chapter 10, Miss Trunchball, who used to be a hammer thrower in the Olympics, picks up a young girl by her ponytails, swings her around, and throws her into a cow field. In chapter 11, Miss Trunchball punishes Bruce Bogtrotter by forcing him to eat an enormous cake during assembly. When he, to the children's delight, eats it all without throwing up, Trunchball smashes a plate over his head.