Karla Kuskin
Mr. Dahl has written a few wonderfully funny and imaginative books. ''The Twits'' is not one of them. The movement of the plot is capricious. And the humor dwells on rather elementary physical jokes, only a few of which are funny. Basically this reads like a story reeled out at bedtime by a talented but distracted uncle who wants to pack the children off quickly. It needs pruning, paring, sharpening and some bolting down in order to go public and add luster to the already lustrous, and funny, name of Roald Dahl. -- New York Times
School Library Journal
Gr 2-4-Actor Simon Callow tackles one of Roald Dahl's most gruesome stories (Puffin, pap. 1998) with relish in this gleefully naughty audiobook. Mr. and Mrs. Twit are two of the most disgusting, nasty, and horrid characters in children's literature, from their repulsive looks (the story opens with a long, detailed description of Mr. Twit's unkempt beard) to the mean and horrible tricks they play on one another (Mrs. Twit enjoys hiding her glass eyeball in unexpected places and lacing the spaghetti with worms; Mr. Twit works for weeks to convince his wife that she has "The Shrinks"). Callow captures the dry humor of Dahl's narrative voice perfectly, and creates appropriately nasty voices for Mr. and Mrs. Twit as well. Unfortunately, the thick accents and loud tones of these voices often mean that the dialogue is difficult to understand. Still, Callow's able narration brings Dahl's ironic sensibilities to life, and a sense of satisfaction is inevitable when the terrible Twits come to an appropriately gruesome end.-Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Maryland School for the Deaf, Columbus
FEB/MAR 03 - AudioFile
THE TWITS is the ultimate story of tit for tat. With antics including a glass eye on the loose and a frog-bedecked pillow, Mr. and Mrs. Twit vie to outdo each other with nastiness. But it’s the Muggle-Wumps, with help from the Roly-Poly Bird, who have the last, topsy-turvy, say. From the opening description of Mr. Twit’s food-encrusted beard, the listener knows that Simon Callow delights in portraying this detestable being and his wife. The drool of the tongue and the slurps of the wormy spaghetti will bring chuckles of pleasure and disgust, as will Callow’s animated description of “the shrinks.” He personalizes the Muggle-Wumps with relish. His lilt and cadence for the Roly-Poly Bird evoke its origins. Whether young listeners are attracted or repulsed by the Twits, the presentation is marvelous. A.R. 2003 ALA Notable Recording © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
