Esio Trot

Author: Roald Dahl
Publisher and Publish date: Trumpet, 1990
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Theme: This book was about love and how one can go a lot out of their way to win someone’s heart.

My author’s purpose in writing this book was to entertain me with Mr. Hoppy and how he wins Mrs. Silver’s heart by using her turtle and a fake spell.

Problem: Mr. Hoppy likes Mrs. Silver, his neighbor, but all Mrs. Silver cares about is her pet turtle, Alfie. Also, he is too shy to ask her to marry him.
Solution: He buys 140 turtles that look like Alfie but are heavier, because Mrs. Silver will like him if he makes Alfie grow. He makes up a spell and exchanges Alfie with a heavier turtle, then another heavier turtle, and so on.

Esio Trot by Roald Dahl is about an old man named Mr. Hoppy who lived in an apartment complex. Everyday, he went on top of his balcony and watched Mrs. Silver, a widow; live below him, and feed her pet turtle, Alfie. Mr. Hoppy wanted to marry Mrs. Silver, but he was too shy to even start a conversation with her.
One day, he mustered up enough courage and asked her how Alfie was doing. She replied, saying that she is very worried because Alfie isn’t growing. Mr. Hoppy thinks quickly and says that he knows a “magical” poem and when the poem is sung to the turtle, it grows.
He taught her the poem. Then, he immediately went to the pet store and bought one hundred forty turtles that looked like Alfie, but were a little bigger. Every week, Mr. Hoppy would switch her turtle with one that was slightly bigger while she was at work. After eight weeks, the new turtle was twice the size of Alfie! When Mrs. Silver came home from work, she found out that Alfie was too big for his house! She praised Mr. Hoppy, but told him to shrink “Alfie”.
Mr. Hoppy changed the “magic” words and while Mrs. Silver was at work, he exchanged the big turtle with a smaller one. Mrs. Silver came home and she was very glad that Mr. Hoppy’s “magic” words worked on “Alfie”! Mrs. Silver invited him down to her house for tea and he FINALLY asks Mrs. Silver to marry him. Mr. Hoppy returned the turtles to the pet store and a few weeks later, they got married.


“Mrs. Silver caught the paper and held it up in front of her. This is what she read: ESIO TROT, ESIO TROT, TEG REGGIB REGGIB! EMOC NO, ESIO TROT! WORG PU, WOLB PU, LLEWS UP! EGROG! ELZZUG! FFUTS! PLUG! TUP NO TAF, ESIO TROT, TUP NO TAF! TEG NO, TEG NO, ELBBOG DOOF!”
I like these sentences because they play with words and it adds more excitement to the book.