A Tiger Comes to Town by R. K. Barayan, publised 1983

 This is a humorous story. The narrator is a tiger, who escapes from a circus and enters a school, to the enjoyment of the students. People, whom the tiger had been afraid of, looked so terrified, and ran away from the tiger. The tiger thinks that humans are not scary. They are weak, coward, and foolish. Actually, they cannot communicate well with each other with so many different languages. They are bound with unnecessary laws. Barayan insinuates that humans are foolish.

Matilda by Roald Dahl

This is a fantastic story. Matilda is a phenomenon, who has read a bunch of world famous novels such as Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Moby-Dick by Herm Melville and others. 

The most exciting part is the scene in which the schoolmaster, Miss Tranchbull reads the letters on the blackboard, which Matilda writes with the power of her eyes.  They go: 

Agatha, this is Magnus. You'd better believe it. Agatha give my Jenny back her house. Give my Jenny her wages. Give my Jenny the house  Then get out  of  here. If you don't, I will come and get you like you got me. I am watching you, Agatha.

It is surprizing that Trunchbull is Miss Hony's mother-in-law. 

In the end, Matilda is allowed by her parents to live with Miss Honey, and her parents and brother leave for Spain.

The story is funny, intersting, and exciting. It describes every scene minutely enough for the reader to imagine it vividly. 

And I must add here that the story is read aloud by a genious reader, probably Kate Winslet. Her way of reading aloud is superb. I had never heard a book read so well as she reads. English textbooks used in high schools in Japan should let the students liesten to her reading. They will surely be fascinated.

Button Button by Richard Matheson

This story is uncanny with a surprising ending. 

A strange box with a button on top is the crutial tool that raises curiosity and tention in the reader.

Matheson is skillful in driving Norma to the finl action of pushig the button. [Spoiler] He drives her to do so gradually. Here and there, she appears to have no intention of pushing the button, but deep in mind she has this curiosity and desire to earn the money. 

First, she  picks up half-tored cards; then Scotch-taped, then put the box in the apartment, then put it in the bottom shelf, then puts it on the table, and after a long gazing, she pushes the button.

A hosptital informs her of her husband, Arthur's death in a subway accidient. And she will get &50,000.

She cries at Mr. Steward, "You said I wouldn't know the one that died."

"My dear lady," Mr. STeward said. "Do you really think you knew your husband"

Aurher is the last person to yeild to such a tricky and murderous action, yet he dies. The reader will be shocked to know who was killed. 

Nobody really knows another peson, even your family members. 

A really SURPRISING ENDING!  A great job!

The story is similar to Lottery, in which the winner is stoned by her villagers.

 The writer was born in New Jersey in 1926.  Button Button was written in 1970.