The Twits and Other Relics of Childhood

The Twits by Roald Dahl
First Printing: 1930 by Johnathon Cape
Illustrated by Quentin Blake

I remember a time in my childhood where I wasn't very enthusiastic about reading. During my elementary years, the school required us to read an inordinate amount of books. Most of them bored me to tears. I remember writing an essay saying that I would "never, ever, EVER" read another Beverly Cleary book as long as I lived (don't hate me, Ramona fans!), and my mom had to watch closely to make sure I finished the books for my reports. As worthy as those books probably are, I was yearning for more fun in stories. My love of reading could have been extinguished all together, but then there are books like this to save the day.

When I was a kid, I got a box of hand-me-down books from my aunt. Out of all of them, this one was an instant favorite. This book was funny and adventurous, but more importantly, it was rude. It was unlike anything I had ever read before, and I ate it up. Mr. and Mrs. Twit were constantly playing pranks on each other and reveling in their nasty habits. It was one I had to read by myself because my parents were grossed out by it. But it made me laugh, and I would finish it only to immediately start it all over again. I was particularly tickled by the part about Mr. Twit and his beard full of food.

"If you looked closer still (hold your noses, ladies and gentlemen), if you peered deep into those moustachy bristles sticking out over his upper lip, you would probably see much larger objects that had escaped the wipe of his hand, things that had been there for months and months, like a piece of maggoty green cheese or a moldy old cornflake or even the slimy tail of a tinned sardine. Because of all this, Mr. Twit never went really hungry. By sticking out his tongue and curling it sideways to explore the hairy jungle around his mouth, he was always able to find a tasty morsel here and there to nibble on." (page 7)


The Twits pull prank after prank, from Mrs. Twit serving her husband worm spaghetti to Mr. Twit putting frogs in his wife's bed. Every scheme gets more elaborate than the next, until you meet Mr. Twit's pet monkeys. Mr. Twit dreams of getting rich with his own Upside-down Monkey Circus, so he forces his pets to stand on their heads for hours. Muggle-wump, the father monkey, devises a plan to get his revenge on the terrible Twits!

Final Rating: 5 out of 5

This is a great book to get kids interested in reading. It has all the whimsy of a typical Dahl book with a nasty twist. Yes, it is a little bit gross, but what kid doesn't like to be grossed out? For any beginning reader, humor is a great way to start. I still reach for this book whenever I need a laugh!

Favorite Quote: "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." (page 9)

Another childhood favorite, Simba!

The Twits is available in both physical and digital copies through most major booksellers, including Barnes and Noble and Amazon.