Narrator
The next morning, after her parents left, Matilda set off in search of a book.
Where's are the children's books, please?
In that room right over there. Would you like me to pick you out one with lots of pictures in it?
No, thank you. I'm sure I can manage.
Narrator
From then on, every day, as soon as her mother went to bingo, Matilda walked the ten blocks to the library, and devoured one book after another. [She giggles upon reading, as Mrs. Phelps hears her whilst working. Matilda places some books on a table, before she puts them back.] When she finished all the children's books, she started wandering around in search of something else. Mrs. Phelps, who had been watching her with fascination for the past few weeks, offered Matilda some valuable library information.
You know, you can have your very own library card, and then you could take books home, and you wouldn't have to walk here every day. You can take home as many as you'd like.
That would be wonderful.
Narrator
So, Matilda's strong, young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world, like ships onto the sea. [As the 4-year-old Matilda walks in the park with her wagon, the shot fades to the 6-year-old Matilda still walking in the park.] These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message; you are not alone.
Any packages come today?
Mm-mm.
Where'd all this come from?
The library.
The library?! You've never set foot in the library, you're only four years old!
I'm six and a half.
You're four!
Six and a half.
If you were six and a half, you'd be in school already!
I want to be in school. I told you I was supposed to start school in September. You wouldn't listen.
Get up! Get up! Get out here. Give me that book. [takes his daughter's book and throws it on the ground aside, briefly catching his son's attention. Harry takes his daughter to their bedroom where his wife is applying peroxide in her hair] Dearest pie, how old is Matilda?
Four.
I'm six and a half, Mommy.
Five, then.
I was six in August.
You're a liar.
I wanna go to school.
School! It's out of the question. Who would be here to sign for the packages? [applies his hair tonic into his hair] We can't leave valuable packages sitting on the doorstep. Now go watch TV like a good kid.
You know, sometimes I think there's something wrong with that girl.
Hm. Tell me about it.
Hey, dipface! [throws some marshmallows at at Matilda, as she walks to her bedroom, ignoring his brother] Have a marshmallow. Have another marshmallow, dipface! Dipface!
Narrator
Sometimes Matilda longed for a friend, someone like the kind, courageous people in her books. [she closes the book and gazes at the front cover where it shows the illustration of Ivanhoe] It occurred to her that, like talking dragons and princesses with hair long enough to climb, such people might exist only in storybooks. But Matilda was about to discover that she could be her own friend, [the next scene shows Harry joyfully running to the house, laughing] that she had a kind of strength that she wasn't even aware of.
