The Twits (1980)

This book was good but not as enjoyable as the other Roald Dahl books that I have read. The characters are nasty and negative. Roald Dahl does an excellent job of portraying these characteristics in this book. This would not be the first Roald Dahl book that I would recommend but it is still a pretty decent read.

Curricular connections:
I think that this could be a good book for a counselor to use in lessons or to assign to a student that is having problems with being negative or treating others badly.

I can’t remember much about “The Twits”, as I read it when at primary school, but I do recall how popular Roald Dahl was with most if not all of the class, and this book was amongst the most popular. For that reason I’m rating this four stars and hope I’m not being unjustified.

I either read this or had it read to me (the equivalent to an audio book) or both somewhere from 1983-85, thus I’ve put 1984 as reading dates as an average. I will have read/heard a few of Mr Dahl’s books during this period, of which some titles I can’t remember at all.

If I had to or wanted to re-read any children’s books for some reason or other then I’d definitely opt for works by this author. All these years on and he’s left a very faint yet happy memories in the back of my mind. ( )

SUMMARY: A couple who hates everything finally understand what it's like to be hates when their pet monkeys decide to get revenge.

REVIEW: A Roald Dahl book is sure to be favorite of mine, so of course I adore this particular novel. Dahl's funny, satirical humor gives his writing a unique style that I think kids of all ages will enjoy. This book also has some memorable quotes, such as: “...if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” Additionally, there is always some sort of moral lesson in each of Dahl's books. However, I think the main draw of this novel is that it is simply a fun read. ( )

I liked this book for two reasons. One reason I liked this book was for the way it was written. This book was intended to be an entertaining and funny read. The way the author wrote this book was very engaging. For example, the author used funny made up words such as "swizzle", "gnazzle", and "gnozzle" to entertain the reader. Another reason I liked this book were for the illustrations. Although this was a chapter book, there were pictures on every other page to accompany the text. I thought that the way the pictures were done and where they were specifically placed in the story really brought the story to life. Although there wasn't an overall message of this book, I thought that through the friendship between the monkeys and bird, it could teach younger children about the value of friendship. ( )

Re-reading this aloud did not match my very positive memories of the book: it was more mean than I had remembered and not as witty, with nothing much in the way of character development or plot. It seems pale compared to much of the rest of Roald Dahl. That said, it still has a lot of memorable creations, not the least of which is covering a tree in glue to trap birds for bird pie. ( )