Product Description

This is the tale of the Twits: Mr and Mrs Twit, an obnoxious couple who spend their lives trying to outdo each other in nastiness. But the Muggle-Wump monkeys and the Roly-Poly bird hatch an ingenious plan to give them just the ghastly surprise they deserve.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131781 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Roald Dahl has such an unusual first name due to fact that his parents spelt his name wrong on the Register of Births. From this non-literary background came one of the masters of children's literature.

The Twits is one of his many successful and highly entertaining books. The Twits are a couple that nobody would like to know. They are hairy, dirty, smelly and generally unpleasant. Roald Dahl's characters are possibly the most horrid people you will ever read about. Mr and Mrs Twit spend their days inventing new ways to be be nasty to each other. Each time Mrs Twit does something bad to Mr Twit, he just invents something worse to do to her. The Twits are not only unpleasant towards each other but they also hate animals. It is because of the Twits' attitude towards animals that we see their really awful side: Mr Twit keeps a family of monkeys that have to spend their days upside down and Mrs Twit likes to make pies with freshly caught birds.

Dahl's story, as is characteristic with all his books, has a happy ending. Only how will the animals beat the Twits? --Jon Smith

From the Back Cover
With filthy hair all over his face and horrid plots growing in his mind, Mr Twit is one of the nastiest people you'll ever meet and Mrs Twit is just as bad and even uglier!

But they don't stop at tricking each other: neighbouring children and even the local birds are in danger, and that's where the Muggle-Wumps come in. This family of monkeys has had enough of the Twits' tricks and, with the help of the handsome Roly-Poly bird, they decide it's time for sweet revenge...

The son of Norwegian parents, Roald Dahl was born in Wales in 1916 and educated at Repton. He was a fighter pilot for the RAF during World War Two, and it was while writing about his experiences during this time that he started his career as an author. His fabulously popular children's books are read by children all over the world. He died in November 1990.

Quentin Blake is well known as Roald Dahl's principal illustrator but has also written and illustrated a great many picture books of his own, such as Mister Magnolia and Zagazoo. He was the first Children's Laureate from 1999 to 2001.

About the Author
Roald Dahl, the best-loved of children's writers, was born in Wales of Norwegian parents. After school in England he went to work for Shell in Africa. He began to write after "a monumental bash on the head", sustained as an RAF pilot in World War II. Roald Dahl died in 1990.

Customer Reviews

Hairy!
Plot: Mr and Mrs Twit are always playing pranks on each other like Mr Twit put a frog under Mrs Twit's bed sheets so she put some worms in her husband's spaghetti and she covered it in tomato sauce, sprinkling cheese on top! The Twits are a pair of revolting people. They never wash, they hate children and they catch birds for yucky bird pie!

An author fact: Roald Dahl kept an old school exercise book for putting in his book ideas; for The Twits it simply said `do something against beards'!

Rating and recommendation: I would rate it 7/ 10; I would recommend it to all Roald Dahl fans.

A great children's book
Mr and Mrs Twit are mean - in fact very mean - to each other; they play tricks on each other, which appeal to your sense of humour. They are cruel to birds - who hates birds? They're also horrible to Muggle-Wumps, a friendly group of monkeys. However, when the Roly-Poly Bird arrives the birds and Muggle-Wumps manage to turn the tables on the Twits (quite literally).
Roald Dahl's story is clever and cleverly funny. I couldn't think of a child between six and nine not enjoying this - or any of his other 'classics', 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', 'The BFG', and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' to name but a few. This is a very good child's book, written by the best children's author of all time - is there any better? - supported by superb illustrations by Quentin Blake, so you can really hate the Twits.

The Twits by Roald Dahl
The Twits is one of Roald Dahls shorter & less famous children's novels. The Twits are a repulsive elderly couple who do mean things to each other. Some of the details and ideas in this book are disgusting! I still remember the bit about the worms and the spaghetti fifteen years later. It's screamingly funny. But it's never too horrible to give children nightmares and there's always enough humour for children to love it.

Any child aged 6 to 9 will adore this book to bits. Most adults will wonder what the fuss is about. Therefore it's perfect younger childrens book. This was one of my favourites when I was a child and I used to take great delight in reading the nastiest bits out loud to my mother (who pretended to be shocked). The literary equivalent of a whoopie cushion.