What a Silly Name for a Book! (The Twits - Roald Dahl)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	The Twits - Roald Dahl
Date:	03/01/06 (1606 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliantly written, wonderful story

Disadvantages: Will appeal to younger children mainly.

*Introduction*
Once you’ve read one Roald Dahl book, you want to read more. “George’s Marvellous Medicine” quickly turned into “The Twits” in a brief hailstorm of Dahl children’s stories. Better still is that I’ve discovered that there are plenty of titles like “The Enormous Crocodile” and “The Magic Finger” that I’ve yet to try. One shouldn’t forget that there is a wide range of titles appealing to all cross sections of readers by Dahl. These include further books for younger children, books for older readers like “The BFG” and “The Witches”, picture books like “Dirty Beasts” and “Revolting Rhymes”, plays like “The BFG: Plays for Children” and finally, teenage fiction such as “The Vicar of Nibbleswick” and “Rhyme Stew”. D’yer know, I’ve read far less of Dahl’s overall works than I had ever imagined.

*The story*
Mr and Mrs Twit are just awful. Not ordinarily awful, they are your worst nightmare. Not in a Jack the Ripper kind of worst nightmare way but simply mean as in mean and awful. Mr Twit has a hairy face; Mrs Twit is simply ugly. Mr Twit gets all kinds of things stuck in his beard. Oh there’s maggoty green cheese, mouldy old Cornflakes and even a slimy tail of tinned sardine. In fact, Mr Twit never goes hungry. He simply sticks his tongue out, curls it sideways and explores the hairy jungle around his mouth. Mrs Twit wasn’t born ugly. “The ugliness had grown upon her year by year as she got older.” As the author goes on to explain “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 until it gets so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it.”

Mr and Mrs Twit play tricks on each other. There was the time Mrs Twit put a glass eye in the bottom of Mr Twit’s beer glass. There was also the time when Mr Twit put frogs in Mrs Twit’s bed. Mrs Twit was so overcome she fainted. And what about the time Mrs Twit put worms in Mr Twit’s spaghetti then watched him eat it all up? See what I mean, simply awful?

“Muggle-Wump and his family longed to escape from the cage in Mr Twit’s garden and go back to the African jungle where they came from. They hated Mr and Mrs Twit for making their lives so miserable. They also hated them for what they did to the birds every Tuesday and Wednesday.”

To find out all about The Big Dead Tree, the Roly-Poly Bird and how Muggle-Wump and his family of oppressed monkeys finally get their own back on The Twits you’ll need to read the rest of the book.

*My thoughts*
The Twits is another story that roams freely among the politically incorrect volumes of Dahl’s work. Unpretentious, slightly middle class (well “twit” is quite a middle class word, don’tcha think?) and graphically cartoon, Dahl once gain weaves a comic world of childish invention and impudence. Of course, the reader knows that the main characters are simply mean but that empathy is there in large dollops as one can but smile at the antics of the Twits. Dahl’s simplicity of phrase, ryeness of expression and metaphorical eyebrow raising among the trials and tribulations of the comic duo captivates any reader, regardless of age.

This particular story will appeal to children of a younger age bracket in the main (say, pre-teen) and the addition of illustrations from Quentin Blake enhance that child-like charm that so often comes with a Dahl tome. You could be forgiven for thinking that the book is merely having a go at people with beards and ugly people and, in a sense, maybe you have a point (I mean, people with beards and ugly people are only marginally worse than ugly people with beards aren’t they?). However, everyone will be able to identify with the mean-spirited but naïve odd couple in the shape of The Twits. Maybe it’s that neighbour who tells you off for playing on the grass in front of their house; maybe it’s your old granny or granddad who continually complains about things; maybe even it’s your mom and dad at times – especially the ones that eat bird pie. Whatever it is, Dahl connects with the common people in a way that waxes lyrical from the most basic level of a parent reading to a child to a member of the Royal family chortling at these particular shenanigans.

The author’s endings can often surprise too. Not always the happy ever after that most people would assume, often Dahl’s books end with a dark finale that have even been changed when making the transposition from book to movie. “The Witches” springs to mind as one instance. So don’t assume that the story will always turn full circle and that the villain of the piece will be reformed. Dahl doesn’t work like that.

*Summary*
"The Twits" is another warm-hearted, bizarre journey through the mind of Roald Dahl. Suitable for all, the book will mainly appeal to pre-teenage children with a glint in their eye and a mind for adventure. With a darker edge than many other children’s books and a typically subversive take on life, "The Twits" is an endearing piece of nonsense that provides a laugh out loud hour or so and great fun if you are engaging with your child.

As ever, Dahl is simply wonderful. Enjoy.

Thanks for reading

Marandina

Notes
--------
Pages ~ 80
ISBN: 014131138X
Published by Puffin Books

Available for £3.74 from Amazon although you can get further paperback copies from Amazon Market Place for around 17p and Ebay from 1p! The book is also available in audio format as well as a play.

More info about the author at: http://www.roalddahl.com

Summary: Write up of a famous Dahl children's story