The Twits

Sections: Information | Description | Reviews | Articles | Criticism and Analysis | Fun Stuff | Teacher Ideas | Covers | Penguin Readers, Afrikaans, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Scots, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Welsh Covers

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Information

Information on identifying editions is from Richard Walker’s “Roald Dahl – A Guide to Collecting His First Editions”.

• First editions:
  • Jonathan Cape, 1980, UK.
    • To identify: Used a standard single statement (‘First published’ followed by the date with no later printings listed underneath) and published with a dust jacket priced at £3.50.
  • Knopf, 1981, USA.
    • To identify: Used a number line and published with a dust jacket priced at $6.95.
• Illustrated by: Quentin Blake
• Recent news: 
  • Roald Dahl Stories – with Andy Copps and John Kirk - July 5, 2020
  • More news…

• Related books:
  • Roald Dahl 15 Book Box Set
  • Roald Dahl’s Heroes and Villains
  • Roald Dahl’s Scrumdiddlyumptious Story Collection
  • Roald Dahl’s Creative Writing with The Twits: Remarkable Reasons to Write
  • The Laugh Book: A New Treasury of Humor for Children
  • The Marvellous Roald Dahl Library
  • The Puffin Roald Dahl Collection 1
  • The Roald Dahl Centenary Boxed Set
  • The Roald Dahl Collection
• Theater:
  • Dinner at the Twits (interactive theatrical dining experience), 2016, London, UK
  • Roald Dahl’s The Twits adapted by Enda Walsh
  • The Twits adapted by David Wood
  • The Twits 2001 UK Tour, Belgrade Theater, Coventry
• Audio Books:
  • De Dikke Van Dahl read by Jan Meng
  • De Griezels read by Jan Meng
  • Dustene read by Trond Peter Stamsø Munch
  • Gli Sporcelli read by Fabrizio De Giovanni
  • Les Deux Gredins read by Eva Darlan and Claude Villers
  • Roald Dahl Audio Books read by David Walliams, Stephen Fry, Kate Winslet, Chris O'Dowd, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Peter Serafinowicz, Miranda Richardson, Richard Ayoade, Douglas Hodge
  • Roald Dahl Audio Books (10 CD Collection) read by Simon Callow, Miriam Margolyes, Geoffrey Palmer, James Bolam, Andrew Sachs, June Whitfield, Timothy West, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Martin Jarvis
  • The Twits read by Roger Blake
  • The Twits read by Simon Callow
  • The Twits read by Richard Ayoade
  • The Twits read by Roy Kinnear
  • The Twits, The Minpins & The Magic Finger read by Richard Ayoade, Bill Bailey, and Kate Winslet
• TV Shows:
  • Jackanory (1965)

• Buy this book:
  

Important note: From 2022 onwards, Puffin has edited selected Dahl books to remove sensitive language and insert new sentences not written by Dahl. If you would prefer to read the original text, ensure you get a copy published before 2022 or one of the “Classic Collection” published by Penguin.

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Description

How do you outwit a Twit?

Mr. and Mrs. Twit are the smelliest, nastiest, ugliest people in the world. They hate everything—except playing mean jokes on each other, catching innocent birds to put in their Bird Pies, and making their caged monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps, stand on their heads all day. But the Muggle-Wumps have had enough. They don’t just want out, they want revenge.

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Reviews

• “Mr. Twit was a twit. He was born a twit…” by Karla Kuskin (New York Times)

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Articles

• “Roald Dahl’s The Twits: How do you make a book that smells?” 

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Criticism and Analysis

• “The Grotesque and the Taboo in Roald Dahl’s Humorous Writings for Children”
  • Essay by Mark I. West published in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly

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Fun Stuff

Apps

Merchandise

• Elsewhere on the web:
  • Custom binding by artist Erin Fletcher 

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Teacher Ideas

• The Twits – English Lesson Plan
  • Designed to teach creativity, writing, proofreading, literary analysis, teamwork, and more
• The Twits – Lesson Plans
  • Several lesson plans for exploring themes within various chapters in the book
• The Twits – More Student Story Examples
  • Builds on ideas provided in "English Lesson Plan"
• The Twits – Novel Study (Preview)
  • PDF preview of Novel Study including everything you need to teach the novel (full version available for purchase on novelstudies.org)
• The Twits – Show, Don’t Tell
  • A writing activity where that asks writers to make use of both showing and telling as they create a well-organized paragraph of description.

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Covers

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Penguin Readers Covers

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. Simplified story texts are combined with beautiful original illustrations for students aged 7 and above.

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Afrikaans Covers – Die Twakke

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Bulgarian Covers – Семейство Тъпашки

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Catalan Covers – Els culdolla

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Chinese Covers – 壞心的夫妻消失了

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Czech Covers – Prevítovi

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Dutch Covers – De Griezels

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Estonian Covers – Tohlamid

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Finnish Covers – Nilviöt

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French Covers – Les deux gredins

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German Covers – Die Zwicks stehen kopf

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Greek Covers – ΟΙ ΒΛΑΚΕΝΤΙΟΙ

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Indonesian Covers

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Italian Covers – Gli Sporcelli

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Japanese Covers – アッホ夫婦

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Korean Covers – 멍청씨 부부 이야기

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Lithuanian Covers – Kvankos

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Norwegian Covers – Dustene

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Persian Covers – خانواده آقای ابله

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Polish Covers – Fleje

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Portuguese Covers – Os Tontos

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Russian Covers – Свинтусы

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Scots Covers – The Eejits

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Slovakian Covers – Hastrošovci

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Slovenian Covers – Gravža

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Spanish Covers – Los cretinos

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Swedish Covers – Herr och fru Slusk

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Thai Covers – ฅนซื่อบื้อ

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Turkish Covers – Los cretinos

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Vietnamese Covers – Vợ Chồng Lão Twit

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Welsh Covers – Y Twits