Matilda is a very intelligent little girl, but her parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood, never seem to notice and treat her more like a scab than a daughter Before the age of five, she has read Dickens, Steinbeck, Hemingway and Kipling Her parents are no match for her genius, and when she is attacked by Miss Turnbull the headmistress, she discovers she has a psychic power that can save her school and her friend and teacher, Miss Honey