Dirty Beasts - Roald Dahl

Some children may grow up thinking that poetry is an art form that is stodgy and boring, or has to revolve around lofty ideas. If that is the case, they cannot have been introduced to Roald Dahl's 'Dirty Beasts', a collection of nine verses each featuring a creature that is either particularly frightening, very clever or quite extraordinary in some way. The book is likely to delight anyone who has enjoyed Dahl's 'The BFG', 'George's Marvellous Medicine' or 'The Twits', amongst others. 'The Pig' opens this anthology: a pig with a massive brain, who wonders what the purpose of his life is. He is clever enough to work it out: '"They want my bacon ...

We love books in our family. We particularly love Roald Dahl books in our family. More importantly, we love to share our thoughts on such books, discussing the morals and meanings within. Some of our ideas are, quite clearly, preposterous. Mine, mostly, according to Asley. My problem is that I have been tainted by the cinicism of adulthood. So Aslet tells me, anyway. If you ask me, he listens to his grandmother too much. When I say “we”, I mean, more precisely, my nine year old son, Asley, and I. Sure, my daughter loves books, but at 10 months old, she takes the phrase “get your teeth into a good book” a little too far. ...

Dirty Beasts is an excellent anthology of poems written by Roald Dahl. His wicked sense of humour is apparent throughout and accessed by both adults and children at different levels. roald Dahls tongue in cheek attitude to writing comes across well in this anthology and one gets the impression he is 'sailing close to the wind' at times. a lavatorial humour comes across and this appeals to children of all ages. Some parents may find the subject matter a little 'risky' at time, but probably no worse than what they are exposed to on the television. ...