73 pages • 2 hours read
Roald DahlThe Witches
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1983A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
CHAPTERS 1-5
Reading Check
1. What word does the narrator use to explain how real witches look?
2. Which country were the first witches from?
3. What does the will specify about the narrator’s living situation?
4. What are the narrator and Timmy building together?
5. What does the doctor order the narrator and his grandmother not to do during the summer vacation?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What information does the narrator offer about witches? How do they compare to male monsters?
2. Summarize the backstory the narrator shares about his past and his grandmother. How does the narrator learn about witches?
3. What are the six ways to recognize a witch?
4. What are some of the rules and habits of witches?
5. What quarrel does the narrator and his grandmother get into with the hotel manager? What is the outcome?
Paired Resource
“Creature Feature: A History Of Witches Within Literature”
- This post from St. John’s University shares the changing perception of witches in literature over time.
- This resource connects with the themes Good Versus Evil and Appearances and the Fluidity of Identity.
- With which period of time mentioned in the post does Dahl’s novel most closely align?
CHAPTERS 6-9
Reading Check
1. What two things does the narrator notice about the women before the conference starts?
2. What happens to the witch who speaks against the Grand High Witch?
3. What is the name of the formula for which the Grand High Witch gives the recipe?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How is the Grand High Witch disguised? How does she address the crowd?
2. What does the Grand High Witch command of her audience? Describe the plan that she creates in order to achieve the proposed outcome.
3. What does the Grand High Witch do with William and Mary?
Paired Resource
“5 Characteristics of a Compelling Villain”
- This MasterClass article offers a brief list and examples of villainous traits and behaviors from a variety of stories and films. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing without teacher guidance due to some mature content and examples)
- This information connects with the theme Good Versus Evil.
- Teachers might use these characteristics in defining areas for considering and thinking critically about the witches as villains. The children’s stories examples may be helpful in engaging students and in leading discussion.
CHAPTERS 10-14
Reading Check
1. What information does the narrator inform Bruno about that he previously did not realize?
2. What does Bruno never stop doing?
3. What important fact does the narrator learn about the placement of his hotel room and the Grand High Witch’s room?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Who is Bruno Jenkins and what is he like? What purpose does he serve for the witches?
2. Summarize the moment that the witches discover the narrator. What happens to him as a result?
3. Where do Bruno and the narrator decide to go after escaping from the meeting? What plan does the narrator then hatch?
Paired Resource
“Imagery Definition: 5+ Types of Imagery in Literature”
- This article from Writers offers instruction on the use and types of sensory imagery in writing and poetry.
- This information may be helpful in analyzing Dahl’s style, descriptions, word choice, and figurative language in The Witches.
- What examples of sensory imagery can be found in this section of chapters? What kind of imagery does the author seem to utilize often or most?
CHAPTERS 15-18
Reading Check
1. What clothing item does the narrator’s grandmother use to lower the narrator onto the balcony?
2. What does “the stench of witches” remind the narrator of? (Chapter 15)
3. What does the narrator compare a trapeze to?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Summarize the conversation between the narrator’s grandmother and Bruno’s parents. How do they react to the information that she tells them?
2. What is the narrator’s plan regarding the formula? What is the outcome of his plan? Explain.
Paired Resource
“What’s the Monster’s Purpose?”
- This brief article by a student journalist for the McMurry University student newspaper discusses the value and symbolism of monster characters in stories.
- This article connects with the themes Good Versus Evil and Appearances and the Fluidity of Identity.
- The witches in the novel demonstrate monstrous goals and actions. How do the witches as “monsters” contribute to reader engagement and reader fulfillment in this novel?
CHAPTERS 19-22
Reading Check
1. What does the narrator see in the back of Mr. Jenkins’s mouth?
2. How does the narrator’s grandmother help him adapt to life in the house in Norway?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Summarize the event in the dining hall that shocks the diners. What do the narrator and his grandmother do in response?
2. Describe the plan that the narrator and his grandmother have for their future. How does the narrator’s physical form help their future plans?
Recommended Next Reads
Matilda by Roald Dahl
- Dahl’s 1988 novel centers on a young, gifted girl named Matilda who must navigate life with neglectful parents and a cruel school administrator.
- Shared themes include The Importance of Family, Teamwork, and Love and Good Versus Evil.
- Shared topics include dark humor in children’s literature and escaping from evil intentions.
- Matilda on SuperSummary
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
- This novel is the first installment in a 13-book collection, A Series of Unfortunate Events, which follows three orphaned children who are trying to escape their evil cousin.
- Shared themes include The Importance of Family, Teamwork, and Love; Good Versus Evil; and Appearances and the Fluidity of Identity.
- Shared topics include dark humor in children’s literature and escaping from evil intentions.
- The Bad Beginning on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
CHAPTERS 1-5
Reading Check
1. “Ordinary” (Chapter 1)
2. Norway (Chapter 2)
3. That he must continue living and going to school in England (Chapter 4)
4. A tree house (Chapter 4)
5. Travel to Norway (Chapter 5)
Short Answer
1. The narrator highlights the important fact that witches are women who hate children and want to “squelch” them. The narrator distinguishes the fact that men can be “a ghoul” or “a barghest,” but never witches, who are “the most dangerous of all living creatures on earth.” (Chapter 1)
2. The narrator explains that when he was seven years old, while he was visiting his grandmother in Norway, his parents died in a car crash. His grandmother tells him about the truth about witches as a way to distract him from grief, and she details the five cases of children who fell prey to witches in the area. (Chapter 2)
3. The narrator’s grandmother says that witches will always: wear gloves in order to hide her cat-like claws; wear a wig to hide her baldness; have large nostrils for smelling, have eyes that change color; have feet without toes; and spit out blue saliva. (Chapter 3)
4. The narrator’s grandmother shares rules of witches, including not fraternizing with witches in other countries; she also mentions the annual secret meeting of witches where they are addressed by the Grand High Witch. (Chapter 4)
5. When the narrator is discovered with two pet mice, the hotel in Bournemouth attempts to throw out his grandmother and him; however, the grandmother claims the hotel is filthy with rats anyway. The adults make a compromise that the mice can stay with the narrator as long as they stay in their cage. (Chapter 5)
CHAPTERS 6-9
Reading Check
1. The women are scratching their heads and wearing gloves. (Chapter 6)
2. The Grand High Witch kills her with “a stream of sparks.” (Chapter 7)
3. “FORMULA 86 DELAYED ACTION MOUSE-MAKER” (Chapter 8)
Short Answer
1. Hiding behind a screen, the narrator sees the Grand High Witch, who is disguised with a mask of a normal human face. After she removes her mask to reveal an ugly appearance, she announces that all the witches may remove their gloves, wigs, and shoes. Then, she begins to chastise the witches for not getting rid of the children fast enough in England. (Chapter 7)
2. The Grand High Witch demands that the witches of England kill every child in England within one year’s time. To accomplish this goal, she commands that they all quit their jobs and open sweet shops, which will sell a secret formula that will turn all the children into mice while they are at school. Then, the teachers will use mousetraps to catch the “mice.” (Chapter 8)
3. The Grand High Witch sees William and Mary, the narrator’s pet mice who escaped while the narrator was listening to the conference. The Grand High Witch concludes there must be a boy in the hotel and kicks the mice against the wall. (Chapter 9)
CHAPTERS 10-14
Reading Check
1. That Bruno had also become a mouse (Chapter 13)
2. Eating (Chapter 14)
3. That his room is directly above hers (Chapter 14)
Short Answer
1. Bruno Jenkins is a boy staying at the hotel. The narrator believes he is vain, immodest, and cruel to animals. The Grand High Witch uses Bruno as an experiment to prove that her formula works, and in front of the witches, he is transformed into a mouse. (Chapter 10)
2. Soon after Bruno’s transformation, one of the witches begins to smell the narrator (who has not washed for days), and he is quickly caught. The witches hold him down and give him a concentrated potion of the Formula, which immediately turns him into a mouse. (Chapter 12)
3. The narrator convinces Bruno to come back with him to his grandmother’s room, where the narrator relays everything he witnessed to her. He shares his plan to steal a bottle of the concentrated formula from the Grand High Witch’s room so he can then transform all the witches staying in the hotel into mice. (Chapter 14)
CHAPTERS 15-18
Reading Check
1. A sock (Chapter 15)
2. It reminds the narrator of the smell of the men’s bathroom at the train station. (Chapter 15)
3. His tail (Chapter 17)
Short Answer
1. After the narrator successfully retrieves the formula from the Grand High Witch’s room, he returns to his grandmother’s room. Grandmamma decides that she must inform Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins what happened to their son. They are not respectful of the narrator’s grandmother, and when she pulls Bruno in mouse form from her purse, they refuse to believe her and demand that she leave. (Chapter 16)
2. The narrator decides that he will sprinkle the formula into the witches’ food while it is being prepared in the kitchen. He is able to sneak into the kitchen from the dining room successfully and identify the soup that will be sent to the witches; however, he is soon spotted and chased by the chefs. He hides in the potatoes and observes the soup being served to the witches, making his plan a success. (Chapters 17-18)
CHAPTERS 19-22
Reading Check
1. His gold fillings (Chapter 19)
2. By building special furniture and lights for the narrator to navigate the house more easily in his mouse-form (Chapter 21)
Short Answer
1. The narrator’s plan succeeds, and the witches turn to mice right before everyone’s eyes. After once again telling Bruno’s parents that their son is now a mouse, the narrator’s grandmother takes the narrator back to Norway. (Chapters 19-20)
2. After the narrator and his grandmother determine that the narrator has about nine years to live in his mouse state, they decide to take on the rest of the witches in the world, including the new Grand High Witch. They will turn the witches into mice and allow cats to kill them. They are excited with this plan, as the narrator’s mouse-state will allow them to travel and eliminate the witches with ease. (Chapters 21-22)
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