The Twits by Roald Dahl Also by this author: Esio Trot, The Magic Finger, The Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Published by Penguin on August 16th 2007
Genres: Young Adult, Action & Adventure, General, Fiction
Pages: 96
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
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How do you outwit a Twit?
Mr. and Mrs. Twit are the smelliest, nastiest, ugliest people in the world. They hate everything—except playing mean jokes on each other, catching innocent birds to put in their Bird Pies, and making their caged monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps, stand on their heads all day. But the Muggle-Wumps have had enough. They don't just want out, they want revenge.
Retro Friday Reviews is a feature/meme hosted by Angie of Angieville. Basically you review an older book on Fridays.
When I think of authors from my childhood, many names come to mind. At the forefront is Roald Dahl. I’m sure many of you did that thing where when you find one author who is awesome you actively seek out the rest of their work and read it like a loon. Well, back before blogging and new releases, I did this. Ya’ll I’ve read the entirety of Roald Dahl’s books for children. Totally worth my time, even for Esio Trot and The Vicar of Nibbleswick. However, holding a special place in my heart is The Twits.
What my copy looks like
Did any of you have teachers who would read aloud at the end of the day as a special treat? (Please share in the comments if you did!) I can remember back to second grade. It was a hot day, the lights were off and the blinds closed since we did not have air conditioning in the school. On the last days before school my awesome second grade teacher began reading us The Twits by Roald Dahl. Now, let me tell you sometimes reading aloud works, sometimes not. In this case, she had the most awesome voice for it and us children were enraptured. Seriously. A class of fidgety kids transported by the hijinks of those asshole Twits and the awesome mugglewumps. After, this started a journey where I had to read pretty much everything Dahl ever wrote.
The Twits by Roald Dahl is a super short book. My copy is 76 pages and chock full of pictures. It’s literally the perfect book for a second grader AND the perfect book for a readathon. Someone on Twitter told me it was written because Dahl didn’t like people with beards. The Twits, like I said before, are assholes. Mr. Twit and Mrs. Twit are mad ugly and smelly and nasty. If a ball goes into their yard they steal it. They put glue on trees to catch birds and eat them. OH and they have this caged family of monkeys named the Mugglewumps. Being assholes, they make the Mugglewumps stand on their heads. Then one day the Mugglewumps are all NO MAS! NO MAS! And figure out a plan to escape and get vengance on the Twits.
Like much of Dahl’s writing, this book is very silly. It’s very lighthearted. Plus there is the bonus of the Quentin Blake illustrations. I’m not going to lie, as an adult I did laugh out loud several times, however, this may be due to the fact that I am exceedingly immature.
I’ll leave you with some quotes and a picture, because everyone deserves a taste of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake in their day, especially their Friday.
“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 it gets so ugly 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 they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” pg. 9
How To Turn Ugly
“As she floated gently down, Mrs. Twit’s petticoat billowed out like a parachute, showing her long knickers. It was a grade sight on a glorious day, and thousands of birds came flying in from miles around to stare at this extraordinary old woman in the sky.” Â -pg. 28
Disclosure: Purchased copy.
Other Reviews of The Twits by Roald Dahl:
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Roald Dahl is one of my favorite childhood authors and I’m not sure why but I don’t think I’ve ever read this book? Should remedy that soon! I love his books, especially when they’re illustrated by Quentin Blake.
I have a feeling you would love The Twits, and laugh as you read it.
one of my favorite books of all time is The BFG by Dahl. like you, adore the silliness of his writing, yet it’s still totally worth your time.
Growing up this was my sister’s favorite book. My 4th grade teacher read it allowed to us, but nothing compared to my sister reading it all the time and laughing out loud at it. She has this contagious laugh. She still talks about it sometimes.
I haven’t even thought about this book in YEARS! But I still remember the Blake illustration of all of the yuck stick in Mr Twit’s beard… I’m sure there’s a cornflake in there somewhere…
My brother and I used to read this together when we were teeny!
Thanks for the memories!
This is so wonderful! This is my favorite Roald Dahl book, which is saying a lot because he is one of my all time favorites. I still go to the Dahl section almost every time I go to the library (several times per week) and look through his books, even when I don’t grab one of his. Not too terribly long ago, I shared this book with my kids. I have twin 8 year old girls and a 5 year old boy. They loved it, of course! I took them all into the library with me about three or four days ago to get a couple of audiobooks, and one of my girls gave the librarian a stern lecture because they had a couple of Dahl audiobooks, but not The Twits! It was so funny (for me, probably not the librarian)!
what is a stern sorry i dont no im in grade 2