Billy and the Minpins

Billy and the Minpins is Roald Dahl’s final novel and was published posthumously as The Minpins in 1991. The story follows the adventures of Little Billy, who disobeys his mother’s warnings to avoid the Forest of Sin and its terrible monsters. Upon entering the forest, Billy meets the minuscule Minpins and helps them defeat the monstrous smoke-breathing Gruncher, then goes on to have a series of adventures with his new friends. His experiences highlight the importance of Facing the Unknown, Overcoming the Limitations of Fear, and The Leadership Qualities of Children.

Roald Dahl is widely known for writing dark children’s stories with ominous themes, fantastical settings, and courageous young protagonists. Although he enjoyed a 50-year career and published a wide range of fiction, he is perhaps most famous for penning such children’s tales as The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, and Matilda.

This study guide refers to the 2023 Viking edition of the novel.

Plot Summary

Little Billy tries to be good and follow all of his mother’s rules. She does not want him to go outside of their garden gates, and she sternly warns him against venturing into the nearby Forest of Sin, describing the many horrible monsters that will eat him in a single bite if he does. Despite his mother’s warnings and rules, Little Billy longs for adventure, and he is tired of being good. One day, Billy hears an enticing voice whispering to him and realizes that it must be the Devil whispering suggestions in his ear. The Devil tells him that it would be easy to sneak out the window and go into the Forest of Sin. Although Billy’s mother says the Forest of Sin is a dangerous place, the Devil says that it is wonderful and is full of carpets of delicious strawberries.

The temptation is too much for Little Billy. He gives in and sneaks out the window, then ventures into the Forest of Sin. As the trees close in around him, he is terrified by ominous noises in the distance and sees two clouds of smoke rising, as if they are coming from the nostrils of a deadly beast. He realizes that he has been discovered by one of the monsters that his mother warned him about. He flees, but cannot see this monster because it is hidden in a cloud of red smoke. Desperate to escape, he leaps into a tree and climbs frantically to the top, relieved to have found a temporary refuge.

Suddenly, tiny little pieces of bark on the tree begin to move and open, and Billy realizes that they are windows. A tiny old man peers out of one window, and many other tiny people follow suit. The old man introduces himself as Don Mini, Ruler of the Minpins—the tiny people who live in intricate cities in the forest’s many hollow trees. Billy discovers that these tiny people live all over the forest in tiny homes. Don Mini shows him that the Minpins can use suction boots to walk up and down the tree trunks, and they have also befriended the birds, who willingly fly them around the forest whenever they like.

The Minpins tell Billy that he is doomed to stay in this tree forever because if he tries to climb down, the monster below—the Gruncher—will eat him. The Gruncher terrorizes the Minpins and devours thousands of them. The Minpins can only travel by riding birds because the Gruncher will eat them if they dare to walk on the forest floor. Don Mini explains that the Gruncher’s smoke comes from a fire deep inside the beast. The only way to kill the Gruncher is to immerse him in water, but Don Mini has no idea how they could trick him into entering a pond or a lake.

Billy asks Don Mini if there is a bird big enough to carry him, and when Don Mini tells him that Swan, the largest bird in the forest, could do so, Billy devises a plan. He proposes to ride on Swan’s back and entice the Gruncher into chasing him through the forest. The Gruncher cannot see through his red cloud of smoke, but he will be able to smell Billy, who will then lure him into the lake at the edge of the forest.

Billy and Swan execute this plan successfully, vanquishing the Gruncher, and he and the Minpins celebrate and gleefully venture out onto the forest floor at last. To thank Billy for his help, Don Mini promises that Swan will come to his bedroom window and give him rides to new and amazing places for as long as Billy is small enough to ride on his back. However, Billy must never tell anyone about the Minpins, or the humans will come and invade the Minpins’ forest home. Swan takes Billy home, where his mother is still in the kitchen, and is unaware that he even left. When she sees his dirty clothes, she scolds him, but Billy claims that he was just climbing a tree in the garden.

True to his word, Swan gives Billy rides every night, and Billy experiences the magic of many different hidden places. Sometimes he visits the Minpins, and sometimes he visits beautiful and strange places that he has never seen. On one occasion, Swan takes him to a place that seems to be a massive meeting place for swans, and Billy regrets that he does not speak Swan’s language and cannot ask him more about it. Eventually, Don Mini tells Billy that soon he will be too big to ride Swan. When that happens, Billy can still visit the Minpins, but his nighttime adventures will have to end. The narrator states that he and Little Billy have both faithfully kept the secret about the Minpins, and he urges readers to keep their minds and hearts open and look for the amazing things that are hidden in the world, because if they don’t believe in magic, they will never find it.