Outline Matilda's plan of counter attack.

After her father tears the library book, Matilda goes over to her friend Fred's house to investigate his talking parrot, wondering if it talks as well as he says it does. The parrot's voice does indeed sound just like a human's, but he can only say "Hullo" and "Rattle my bones!" Matilda decides this is enough for her purposes, and gives Fred all her pocket money so that he will loan the parrot to her for just one night.

Once home, she wedges the parrot's cage up the chimney so it cannot be seen. That evening, as the family is eating dinner in front of the television, the parrot begins to speak. It says "Hullo, hullo, hullo" over and over again, and Matilda's mother panics because she thinks burglars are in the house. She insists that Matilda's father go check, but he is afraid, so he drags the rest of the family with him. Unsurprisingly, they find no one, but the parrot begins to say "Rattle my bones." Matilda guesses aloud that it is a ghost, and proclaims that the room is haunted. The family runs out of the house in fright, and the next day Matilda is able to take the grumpy, sooty parrot down from the chimney and return him to Fred.