The Twits

Title: The Twits
Author: Roald Dahl
Publisher: Puffin
Reading Level: 2 and up
Pages: 76
Genre: Fiction





Summary:

Mr. Twit is a very hairy, very ugly, very mean man. He has a wife too. And she is very ugly, and very mean, and has a glass eye. Nobody knows why the two are married. Every day they are plotting to do something horrible to eachother. It goes back and forth like that for days and days. Mrs. Twit put her glass eye in Mr. Twit's beer mug, so he put a frog in her bed. So she decided to make his spaghetti with worms!!! To get her back he added wood to her walking stick. After a while she noticed that it was longer. He told her she was gettin gthe dreaded shrinks! Her head was going to squish into her body and then her body into her legs! Everything was squishing into her body that she would end up just being a bundle of clothes and some shoes! Mrs. Twit was terified. So Mr. Twit told her that if she was stretched she would be cured. He tied her to the ground and started tying ballons to her arms and head. She felt herself stretching, and she was worried that the string holding her down would break. When Mr. Twit heard her say that he hurried and cut the string. She flew up and up and up! Mrs. Twit was a quick thinker, so she started biting off the stings, and slowly she started to float down. She landed right on Mr. Twit! They always played these horrible tricks on eachother. Every Wednesday the Twits had bird pie. Mr. Twit would go out Tuesday and put strong glue on a dead tree. At night when the birds roost in the trees they get stuck tight! Then Mr. Twit comes and takes them in to be cooked into a pie. Now Mr. Twit has 4 monkeys (he wants to create an upside-down monkey circus) and they alwasy try to warn the birds. However, they don't speak the same language. One day, a Roly-Poly bird came and spoke the same language as the the monkeys and the birds! Every night the bird would warn the other birds, and Mr. Twit would be angry that he didn't have any birds for his bird pie. The Twits decided to go and get guns! When they leave the Roly-Poly bird grans the keys and the monkeys are free! Muggle-Wump (the dad monkey) hurries to get the strong glue and he runs into the house. All the birds and his family think he is crazy as he tells them to cover the ceiling with glue. However, they do it, and soon all the furniture is on the ceiling! The Twits come home and some birds put gllue on their heads. They go to load their guns, but when they walk in everything is upside-down! Mr. Twit says they need to stand on their heads to be right-side-up. So they do, and the glue sticks them tight to the floor that looks like the ceiling. The monkey's escape and the Roly-Poly bird gives them rides back to Africa. Now the Twits are stuck on their heads like that for a very long time. As the time grows longer they realize that their heads are starting to shrink into their necks! Their whole bodies are shrinking into themselves! Soon all that is left is a bundle of clothes and some shoe; they had gotten the shrinks! When Fred came (he was coming to read the gas-meter) he knowcked on their door. When nobody answered he walked inside and saw whaat was left of the Twits, He shouted hooray as did everyone else!

My Reaction:

This was an alright book. I don't think I would read it again, but it was kind of funny, and gave me something to do.

Potential Problems:

The Twits are very mean to eachother. Parents and teachers might not want their kids/students to have the idea that playing pranks on eachother is okay.

Recommendations:

If you want a quick read then this is the book for you. It's a very easy read, and there are even some pictures throughout it. However, it's not very enlightening.