''The Magic Finger'' is a 1966

children's story "Children's Story" is a song recorded by British-American hip hop artist Slick Rick. Taken as the second single from his album ''The Great Adventures of Slick Rick'', the song was a Top 5 hit on both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot R&B Singles a ...

by British author

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies ...

. First published in the United States by Harper & Row with illustrations by

William Pène du Bois William Sherman Pène du Bois (May 9, 1916 – February 5, 1993) was an American writer and illustrator of books for young readers. He is best known for '' The Twenty-One Balloons'', published in April 1947 by Viking Press, for which he won the ...

, Allen & Unwin published the first U.K. edition in 1968. Later editions have been illustrated by Pat Marriott, Tony Ross, and

Quentin Blake Sir Quentin Saxby Blake (born 16 December 1932) is an English cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and children's writer. He has illustrated over 300 books, including 18 written by Roald Dahl, which are among his most popular works. For his l ...

Synopsis

''The Magic Finger'' is narrated by an unnamed eight-year-old girl who is growing up on a remote rural

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

in the English countryside, next door to the Gregg family who have a passion for hunting animals and birds. The titular "Magic Finger" is an ability the girl has that activates inadvertently whenever she gets angry: the finger itself shoots out a beam of electrical energy that apparently seeks out whoever has angered the girl, with unpredictable consequences. For example, when the girl's teacher, Mrs. Winter, shames her for misspelling the word "cat", the magic finger gives Mrs. Winter whiskers and a bushy tail, and the girl cryptically states that Mrs. Winter was never quite the same again. One day, the girl sees Mr. Gregg and his two sons, Philip and William, returning home from a hunt with a deer that they have just killed, and they make fun of her and tell her to mind her own business when she shouts at them. In a rage, the girl puts the Magic Finger itself on the entire family; when they wake up the following morning they have shrunk to bird-size and developed "ducks' wings" in place of their arms and hands. While trying out their new wings, the Greggs fly out of their house, which is promptly occupied by four human-sized ducks with human arms and human hands, and they are all soon forced to build a nest in an old tree for the night. The following morning, the Greggs all find that, in a major reversal of their

habit A habit (or wont, as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. A 1903 paper in the '' American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, ...

s, three out of four of the ducks are holding the Greggs' hunting guns in their hands. Desperately, Mr. and Mrs. Gregg both persuade the ducks not to shoot them, but the mother duck (the only duck who never holds a gun) taunts them about their own fondness for shooting, especially since the previous day, they somehow shot all six of the duck's children. Mr. Gregg tells the duck mother to give up shooting and he destroys all three guns with a big hammer, swearing never to hurt another

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

, "or anything else again". The four ducks then head back toward the

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

where they live, before letting the Greggs leave their tree. Then, the Greggs all find themselves returned to normal by magic. The eight-year-old girl comes by the Greggs'

to see that the Gregg family (now changing their surname to

Egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

) have fully changed their ways and are now feeding and caring for the birds. As Philip and William tell the girl their entire story, the sound of

gunfire A gunshot is a single discharge of a gun, typically a man-portable firearm, producing a visible flash, a powerful and loud shockwave and often chemical gunshot residue. The term can also refer to a ballistic wound caused by such a discharg ...

in the distance attracts the girl's attention, and she feels the Magic Finger charging up again.

Adaptations

Audio

An unabridged recording of the book read by Roald Dahl himself was released as part of a compilation set by Harper Children Audio. A 1980's version released by WM Collins features Anne Clements as narrator. The 2013 edition of the audiobook featured narration by

Kate Winslet Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Primarily known for her roles as headstrong and complicated women in independent films, particularly period dramas, she has received numerous accolades, including an Ac ...

and was released on digital audio by Penguin Audio.

Animation

The story was adapted into an

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...

(OVA) by Abbey Broadcast Communications in 1990, which was released straight-to-video through Abbey Home Entertainment. It was a faithful adaption of the original story, which was told through Clements' audiobook recordings against animations in the style of Quentin Blake's illustrations. Re-releases from 1997 onwards redubbed Clements' narration with that of actress Caroline Quentin. For its 2005 DVD release, the original narration was reinstated.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enchanting-Stories-Enormous-Crocodile-Revolting/dp/B0009UCEUU

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Magic Finger, The Children's books by Roald Dahl 1966 children's books Children's books about magic Hunting in popular culture American picture books British picture books British fantasy novels Children's books about ducks Novels about talking animals Anti-hunting movement Harper & Row books