Customer Reviews

The Twits (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(100)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Hi, I'm a ten year old girl who has read the book The Twits, by Roald Dahl. It's disgusting in a way, exciting, and funny. The BFG was as good as The Twits, but it wasn't disgusting. The Twits are people that have three monkeys. They hate children. They make bird pie. Mrs. Twit has a glass eye. Mr. Twit has food in his beard which was very long. I would recommend this book to people that like funny, exciting, and disgusting books.

The Twits is a book by Roald Dahl. The Twits are husband and wife and although they are very funny, they are not too bright! Mr. Twit has a long, shaggy beard that has bits of rotten fish, apple, stale bread, etc. stuck in it. Mrs. Twit used to be very pretty when she was young, but she kept having frightening throughts and ended up as an ugly old hag! The Twits love to play mean tricks on each other. For example, one day Mr. Twit is enjoying a big, bubbly beer when Mrs. Twit pops out her glass eyeball and plops it into his mug. After spying the eyeball floating in his beer, Mr. Twit flees the scene leaving the mug and eye behind. She enjoys a good laugh. To get back at her, Mr. Twit puts a frog in her bed. Throughout the book they quarrel constantly, not with words, but by playing mean tricks on one another. My favorite trick was when Mr. Twit attached thin pieces of wood to the bottom of her cane and chair. Over time she thought she was shrinking. He (and I) had a good laugh. I enjoy reading books by Roald Dahl, and this one is among my favorites. In conclusion, I'll just tell you that the Twits end up with a "small" problem. If you read this book, you'll know what I mean by "small."

Just the title, THE TWITS, attracted me to this particular book, and with an illustration in the front cover, who wouldn't be curious! It was another coincidence when I picked up to read this book when it was Roald Dahl's Day!

THE TWITS is the story of a couple of, well, twits! Mr Twit is has a nasty, unhygenic, ugly beard and Mrs Twit could be recognized by her glass eye, who lived in a windowless house. They have four pet monkeys, and a huge dead tree where they catch the birds for their weekly bird pie. to past time, they love to play tricks on each other.

When enough is enough, the four monkeys strategize a plan to turn the tables on the Twits with an interesting plan.

I must admit, the best part of this book, was the part where it says, no matter how you look like physically, if you're a good person, it would shine through and that would makes you a beautiful person.

THE TWITS is a really good read and people in every ages should try pick up this book and take you time to read it. It is worth your time.

I love Roald Dahl, but this just isn't one of his best. Mr. & Mrs. Twit, the main character's are not very nice, and when they perform cruel practical jokes on each other you really don't have much sympathy for either one since you aren't meant to really like them. Some of the jokes are classics however, such as making the wife's cane a little longer each night, and her chair a little taller each day so that she thinks she is shrinking. I've seen several television shows do take offs on this joke over the years to try to get someone to believe they were shrinking, or doing it in reverse so that they believe they are getting taller. The Twit's also own a family of monkeys they obtained while working in the circus, and the father monkey's name is Muggle-Wump. ((This book was written in 1980 and I'm curious if J.K. Rowlings (the writer of "Harry Potter") got her name for humans "muggles" from reading this book.)) Muggle-Wump is a smart monkey, and with the help of his family and of some birds, lead by an African Bird named the Roly-Poly Bird, they get revenge on the Twits for the cruel treatment they have been given, and turn the Twit's world upside down.

Our book review is about a book called "The Twits" by Roald Dahl. We think this book is appropriate for third and fourth graders. Some 2nd graders and also some 5th graders might enjoy it. We would say "The Twits" is a comedy, because it has really funny words like 'gnash', 'gnozzle', 'batty', 'nutty', 'screwy' and 'wacky'! In the story this old, greasy, grimy, grumpy couple play very nasty tricks on each other. Some of us think they're even evil! The tricks are hilarious, but no one ever gets hurt or killed. The story takes place in the Twit's windowless house that looks like a prison. It also takes place in Mrs. Twit's ugly garden. The garden is full of stinging nettles, thorns, and a big, huge, dead tree. The main characters are the Twits, a monkey family, and the Roly-Poly Bird. The main problem is the Twits are abusive to each other and everyone else in the book, but in a funny way. For example, four boys get glued to the dead tree by their pants after Mr. Twit puts glue on the tree to catch birds. We would recommend this book because Roald Dahl's sense of humor is so zany it made us want to read more of his stories.

In one of those strange coincidences of life, I happened to be reading recently about the upcoming movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and noticed that it was based on a story by Roald Dahl. This was of course after I read everything the article said about Johnny Depp, but I digress.

Shortly after that, I picked up a copy of the movie "James and the Giant Peach" - also from a book by the same author.

The final piece fell into place when I attended a book sale, and came across a table of books in the children's section, and lo and behold, there was a selection of books by Roald Dahl, all in readable print with the cute little "Puffin" logo on them.

Needless to say, the cashier thinks I have a lot of kids who like to read, as I didn't exactly let on that I was buying this huge pile of children's books for myself.

This book is a lightning-quick read, even for a child, and it's full of gross hygiene deficiencies, practical jokes and mischievous monkeys. Mr. Twit has the nastiest, ugliest beard known to mankind, the only thing nastier and uglier being Mrs. Twit with her glass eye. They take pleasure in playing horrible practical jokes on each other, being unpleasant to their four pet monkeys, and catching birds to make bird pie.

Of course, nasty people cannot be expected to come to a good end, and the monkeys craftily strategize to turn the tables on the horrible couple.

The underlying moral here is that no matter what you look like physically, if you have good thoughts, they will shine right through and make you a beautiful person, and of course the opposite also unfortunately applies.

Be nice to someone today and let the sunlight stream from your face.

Amanda Richards, February 17, 2005

The Twits is so hilarious. I've always been a fan Roald Dahl's, but I had never experienced this comic gem. The giggling begins on the first page, and it reaches a huge climax a quick 76 pages later. You will probably be doubled over laughing by then. Everything about the book is funny as you watch Mr. and Mrs. Twit pull prank after totally original prank on each other (the pranks include frogs, glass eyes, and balloons among other things). Then, you find out that the mean, awful Twits have been trying to raise an upside down monkey circus, and the monkeys want to get their freedom and to get back at the Twits. Their ingenious plot to get back at the Twits provides the biggest laughs of the book. Even the small descriptions are funny. My favorite line in the book comes when Dahl is describing the yard. He writes of the tree: "To one side (of the house) there is The Big Dead Tree. It never has any leaves on it because it's dead." I'm not totally sure why, but that line almost had me crying. This is one of the most fun reads I've ever had, and the illustrations are great, too. Anytime you're feeling bad, I would certainly suggest this delightful (even if a little mean) read.

Roald Dahl's book called The Twits is the best book written. Mr.Twit and Mrs.Twit are not a happy couple. They play nasty tricks on each other. My favorite is when Mrs.Twit gets the shrinks and Mr.Twit,strechs her out.This is a great book because it is a hilarious and kids love it.

Have you ever seen a married couple who hate each other? Or have you ever seen trained upside-down monkeys that revolt? In this book The Twits by Roald Dahl it happens! Mr. and Mrs. Twits are the nastiest, ugliest, smelliest people in the world. They hate everything except playing jokes on each other! Mr. Twit loves bird pie (with real birds in it!) and training monkeys to do everything upside-down. Mrs. Twit plays the first joke in this book, The Twits and it gets Mr. Twit really mad! The tricks go back and forth between them until Mr. Twit plays the ultimate trick he says that she has the shrinks! (The shrinks is where is your head grows into your neck, your neck grows into your middle, your middle grows into your legs, and your legs grow into your feet!)
Next its time to tell you about the monkeys! Mr. Twit is training his monkeys to do everything upside-down. But alas the monkeys want to go home to Africa. (They hate doing things upside down.) One day a bird native to Africa, the Roly-Poly Bird comes to visit. Then the monkeys play a trick on the Twits! The Roly-Poly Bird, from Africa, lets them out of their cage. The monkeys seize the moment to play the trick. They take the very, very sticky glue out of Mr. Twit's shed. (He uses it to catch birds for bird pie on Tuesdays.) Then the monkeys stick everything to the ceiling in the Twit's house exactly how it was on the floor. When the Twits come home and go inside they think they're on the ceiling so they stand on their heads and then they get the shrinks, for real!
This book is great for laughs it makes you laugh like a laughing hyena! My favorite part in this book is when the monkeys get back at the Twits. I like this part of the story because I felt sorry for the monkeys having to stand on their heads all day. If I were in the monkeys' position I would have done the same thing! In this book there were some parts I didn't like. One part I didn't like was when Mrs. Twit put her glass eye in Mr. Twit's coffee cup and he almost drank it. The other part I didn't like was when Mr. Twit just lets his wife float away wanting to get rid of her anyway.
Next I'll tell you what the Twits look like. Mr. Twit has a very long beard (he thinks it makes him look wise and handsome but really it makes him look ugly). In his beard are little bits of food from all different meals. Mr. Twit never takes a bath so he smells as bad as Swiss cheese! He wears a plum purple suit everyday. Mr. Twit is horrible at being nice and making friends, (which is probably why he doesn't have any friends). But Mr. Twit may be horrible and nasty but he's good at catching birds and making Mrs. Twit really mad!
Now for Mrs. Twit, she used to be beautiful but then she had ugly thoughts and ugly thoughts make you look as ugly as your thoughts so that makes Mrs. Twit the ugliest person in the world! She's mean and nasty and she hits the monkeys with her cane if they don't do what Mr. Twit says. Mrs. Twit is as bad at everything Mr. Twit is bad at (which is probably why they're husband and wife!), but Mrs. Twit is a great at cooking (especially worms and birds!).
I felt different about each character. I didn't like Mr. Twit at all because he was really mean. It shows that he was mean when he was going to put kids in his pie instead of birds. I thought that was really cruel. As for Mrs. Twit she was as bad as Mr. Twit was because she hit the monkeys. The only characters I liked were the monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps because they always had hope that they would get free someday. I liked the book because it was always making me laugh and it kept me reading so that I could find out what would happen next. That's why I liked the story, The Twits, but you don't have to take my word for it, read the book and find out if you like it!

A fun introduction to dark humour for kids. While it sets an example of everything a relationship should NOT be, I have to admit it was sort of funny to observe the bodily humour and laugh at the two very disturbed anti-heroes. If I were to have a child read this, I would probably insist on doing it With them as opposed to having it read it alone without a few comments here and there about how this is no way to behave in real life. That way, its mischief might be mitigated by a little reality...not to spoil the fun, of course, but just in case the child is too young to recognize sarcasm--and it makes a GREAT read-aloud. Anyhow, it's fun, crude, and silly like much of Dahl's work.

In The Twits we see the daily lives of the two most horrible, dirty, ugly, and mean people in town. They are a married couple who do anything and everything to hurt and annoy one another, and when not bothering one another, torture a family of monkeys by training them to be a circus act. Their favorite food is bird pie, which they make by catching birds in trees by using paste on the branches. PLOT SPOILER: The monkeys turn the tables and defeat their owners who, by being pasted to the floor upside-down, collapse into themselves until they disappear forever.