She stands on her chair and then her table waving her arms and screaming, and then the other women start to scream, and then they all stand incredibly still. Jenkins storms off, The Grand High Witch starts to scream. Bruno's father says that he is going to call his lawyers, but the grandmother cautions him that this could result in him being turned into something even worse.Īs Mr. The grandmother explains to him who the witches are and they discuss how The Grand High Witch Of All The World looks so small and harmless. Jenkins will be afraid and that they will have to get rid of their cat.
Bruno, like the boy, celebrates the fact that he won't have to go to school anymore, and his father laments that Mrs. Jenkins refuses to believe until Bruno speaks to him. The grandmother tells him again that he is a mouse, which Mr. The boy and his grandma watch the witches and talk together until they see Bruno's father approach.īruno's father demands to know where his son is. Peeping out of the handbag, the boy sees that the waiters are now clearing the bowls from the witches' soup.
She puts him back in the bag with Bruno, who is eating a roll. He reaches his grandma without rousing any more panic and she congratulates him and bandages his tail. Once things have calmed down, the boy sneaks out of the potatoes and out the door. In the commotion of the cook pulling off his pants, the boy darts out of the pants leg, across the floor, and into a sack of potatoes. The cook starts to slap his legs, so as the waiters laugh and the cook yells, the boy scampers all the way up his leg and down the other. In a panic, he runs up the pants leg of one of the cooks. The boy drops to the ground and runs around in a flash, part of his tail is cut off by a waiter. In his enjoyment, the boy had forgotten he was a mouse until a waiter yells, "A mouse! Look at that dirty little mouse!"(p.162) The waiters are thrown into an immediate frenzy trying to catch the boy. Proud and relieved, the boy swings by his tail from handle to handle of the saucepans stacked on the high shelves. A moment later, a waiter pours a large amount of soup into the basin as well and then puts the lid on it, preparing to take it out to the women. He quickly scampers over so that he is directly above the pot and pours the formula into it. The boy sees them place a huge silver soup pot on a bench and springs into action, swinging himself from his tail so that he landed on a high shelf. Next, a waiter comes in and announces that all of the women from RSPCC, that is, the witches, want soup. The waiter replaces the food but then has all of the other kitchen staff spit on it before bringing it back out. He enjoys swinging for a while until he is distracted by a waiter coming in with food a customer has sent back.
He sees a handle sticking out above him and flips himself so that he swings by his tail. Once in the kitchen, he hides for a few minutes to get his bearings. As soon as they have all passed him he crosses the doorway and scampers into the kitchen as a waiter enters. He runs along the wall and is about to cross the main entrance to the Dining Room when all of the witches pour in. A waiter approaches and after she talks to him she quickly releases the boy. The grandmother sits down at their usual table and sees two long tables with the sign "RESERVED FOR MEMBERS OF THE RSPCC" (153). As she drops the boy into her bag, she reminds him that since he's a mouse, he should be able to use his tail to grab things and swing around. During his time in the role, he celebrated children's books and children's book illustration with a range of projects and exhibitions, and conceived the idea for the House of Illustration, the world's first centre dedicated to the art of illustration in all its forms.At 7:30, the grandmother departs for the Dining Room with the two boys in her handbag. Quentin was the inaugural Children's Laureate (1999-2001), an experience he recorded in his book Laureate's Progress. In the most recent New Year’s Honours list he has been knighted. A tireless promoter of children's literature – and a long-time collaborator with roald Dahl – Quentin Blake was awarded the OBE in 1988 and in 2005 he was awarded a CBE for services to Children's Literature. He is also the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration and in 1990 was voted 'The Illustrator's Illustrator' by Observer Magazine. He has won many major prizes for illustration, including the Kate Greenaway Medal (1980) and the Red House Children's Book Award (1981) for Mister Magnolia. Quentin Blake was born in 1932 and read English at Cambridge, before attending Chelsea Art College.