The Twits

Creative lessons in how to be awful to one another is just part of this lovely little book. Dahl spins a tale of justice for birds, boys, and monkeys against two horrid, hateful, dirty little freaks named The Twits in the wonderfully icky, twisted, and ultimately bully-busting romp.

Creative lessons in how to be awful to one another is just part of this lovely little book. Dahl spins a tale of justice for birds, boys, and monkeys against two horrid, hateful, dirty little freaks named The Twits in the wonderfully icky, twisted, and ultimately bully-busting romp.

Roald Dahl’s birthday was last week, and my mom sent me a list of inspiring Roald Dahl quotes. One of them came from this book:

“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

This quote inspired me to read this book, so when I saw a secondhand paperback for sale at the local library, I bought it in a hurry and binge-read the whole show more thing.

This short book is a fun (and gruesome) romp! It’s kind of the inverse of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: in that book, you meet the hero (Charlie) at the beginning of the story, and the force that changes his destiny (Wonka) comes in half way through. That book is all about goodness being rewarded. Here, you meet the villains (the Twits) right at the beginning, and the avenging force doesn’t come in to the story until half way through, and this book is all about evil being punished.

And oh, what villains! The Twits are nasty to each other and nasty to their animals. And the animals just aren’t going to take it anymore . . .

Fun and slightly morbid, 4.5 stars. show less

I enjoy Roahld Dhal's writing, the mischief, inventiveness and creative language. However, I would not have let my kids read this book when they were little. This book is about mean people, and revenge. Kids pick up on meanness and imitate it, even if it is used clearly in the story as it is an example of wrong and dreadful. There are studies that show kids watching stories where mean people get their due would practice the meanness on each other after, even if they have the best family life. Kids need to learn from good examples.

The problem in this story is the complete lack of compassion, the showing of doing the right thing. The meanness is answered by meanness, and there is no learning. What kind of lesson is that, destroy you those show more who are mean to you, and say "yay" if you find two people dead? Kids might find the story funny, but it would take quite a bit of parental guidance to explain that answering meanness with meanness is a way of perpetuating it, not solving it. show less

What a fabulously grizzly children's book. The most unlikable characters, Mr & Mrs Twit, get their comeuppance. The descriptions alone of these two are enough to make you feel sick. But that enables you to tolerate the vicious pranks they play on each other.

Nice short chapters with lots of illustrations. Thoroughly enjoyable read.

I adore this book. Not only does it have a darkly creative wit to it, but the main characters, a couple by the name of Twits, are absolutely deplorable. But, as most Roald Dahl books, these Twits receive their just desserts in imaginative ways. Illustrated by Sir Quentin Blake, the light-hearted dark comedy shows readers that being a Twit can lead to your demise.

Creative lessons in how to be awful to one another is just part of this lovely little book. Dahl spins a tale of justice for birds, boys, and monkeys against two horrid, hateful, dirty little freaks named The Twits in the wonderfully icky, twisted, and ultimately bully-busting romp.