The Twits (Roald Dahl) (Paperback)

The Twits is a darkly humorous children's book by Roald Dahl, published in 1980. It tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Twit, two of the most unpleasant and nasty characters in Dahl's books. They are filthy, ugly, and have revolting habits. Mr. Twit has a long, messy beard full of old food, while Mrs. Twit is equally unpleasant, with a face that grew uglier because of her constant mean thoughts.

The Twits spend their time playing cruel pranks on each other, such as Mrs. Twit putting her glass eye in Mr. Twit's beer or Mr. Twit making his wife believe she is shrinking by gradually shortening her cane. They also capture and mistreat birds and monkeys, particularly a family of monkeys called the Muggle-Wumps, whom they force to live upside-down in a cage.

The story turns when the Muggle-Wumps, along with a group of birds, outwit the Twits and escape their cruelty. Eventually, the Twits' maliciousness leads to their downfall as they are tricked into believing they are upside down, causing them to shrink into nothingness.

The book is filled with Dahl's signature style of exaggerated characters and moral lessons, highlighting the consequences of being cruel and mean-spirited.