Miss 6 was rapt. She definitely enjoyed listening to both 'Dirty Beasts' and 'Revolting Rhymes'.

Miss 6 and I like to explore different books and authors at the library, sometimes around particular topics or themes. We try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.

This book has been in our house for the entire time we've had kids (I think it belonged to my husband when he was a child) but somehow even though S is 10 now neither he nor L ever asked to read this book. F discovered it somehow, though, and has requested it a couple of days in a row now. Frankly, most of the poems scare her, and I do think this is a bit much for a not-quite-4-year-old. But she likes "Stingaling," the scorpion, a lot so I think that's what keeps her coming back for more.
I should honestly probably rate this as more than 3 stars because the rhymes are clever and the poems are extremely creative, but I've honestly never been a huge Roald Dahl fan. His humor is just a bit too dark/bizarre for me. Of course, that's probably exactly what makes him appealing to many others.
Note that these poems definitely need to be read by someone with a British accent if you want the rhymes to work as intended, particularly in the poem involving the anteater.

Had never read this one by Dahl. It's just a short little book of poems. He uses some of the same animals from The Enormous Crocodile book, but I like that book much better because it's a story. These poems have his same wit, but it's not really my cup of tea.

رولد دال نویسنده محبوب ��نه و قصد دارم اکثر آثاری که نوشته است را بخونم. یکی از آثار کمتر شناخته شده او در ایران کتاب جانوران پلید هست که فقط یکبار در سال ۱۳۸۸ توسط نشر افق با ترجمه محبوبه نجف‌خانی و شهرام رجب زاده به چاپ رسید. نسخه الکترونیک این کتاب در اپلیکیشن فیدیبو موجود است. برخلاف اکثر کتاب‌هایش، این کتاب به شکل شعر نوشته شده و در سبک کتاب «این هم جور دیگر» هست که نشر چشمه چاپ کرده. اگه ازون کتاب خوشتون اومد خوندن این کتاب هم خالی از لطف نیست.

As usual, Dahl delivers twisted, creative tales that are both terrifying and hilarious. Some of the poems were a little long, and might not hold the attention of younger audiences. Overall it was excellent. "The Cow" is definitely my favorite poem in the book.

3.5***.
I think I may have read this book before, but never left a review, so here one is!

The Pig
Very smart, he discovers that people want to eat him. So he eats the farmer instead.

The Crocodile
A croc eats boys with mustard and girls with caramel. A dad is telling this story to his son before bed and in bursts Crocky-Wock.
Dahl rhymes ‘hear’ with ‘stair’ and it really breaks this poem in my opinion :(

The Lion
The lion’s favourite meat is YOU!

The Scorpion
A scorpion wants to sting YOU!
Stingaling hides in beds at night. One boy fears him and calls his mum for help. Stingaling stings the boy’s bottom.

The Ant-Eater
A great poem about a spoiled boy who wants a pet ant-eater. He doesn’t feed his hungry pet, but his aunt comes to visit. There is a bit of word play (the family are American, so they don’t say ‘can’t’, they say ‘kant’ and they don’y say ‘Aunt’ they say ‘Ant’. Surely you can guess what happens. The Ant-eater eats the aunt and wants to eat the boy for desert.
Dahl rhymes ‘could’ with ‘food’ :(

The Porcupine
A girl sits on a porcupine and the dentist has to pull out the spikes. I liked this one.

The Cow
A cow grows wings and starts flying. Everyone is amazed,
‘Except for one quite horrid man
Who’d travelled from Afghanistan.’
Daisy drops a cowpat on his head.
I imagine that the fact that he is from a specific country (Afghanistan) would cause some upset. It could easily be tweaked to avoid being problematic:
‘Who’d travelled from __ __ istan.’
Choose your favourite two syllables:
Roodmannistan.

The Toad and the Snail
A giant toad invites a boy to ride on its back. He jumps all the way to France. The French people want to eat its legs, so it turns into a giant snail. That riles up the people even more until finally it turns into the Rolly-Polly Bird (from the Twits) and flies all the way back to England.

The Tummy Beast
There is a person? inside a fat boy’s stomache who demands that the boy eat junk food. His mum doesn’t believe him, but when his tummy starts talking, the mum faints.

I instantly recognised the illustrations and re-reading this collection of poems really brough back some memories. Written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake, Dirty Beasts is a selection of poems on a variety of unpleasant creatures including a pig, cow, ant-eater, toad, lion, scorpion, crocodile and a porcupine. The poems rhyme, vary from 2-4 pages long and are supported by vibarnt pictures. It would be useful resource if covering any topic related to animals, or the very last poem "The Toad and the Snail" can very easily be incorporated into a French topic.

This book contains some of Roald Dahl's best and funniest poems.

My daughter had to hide under the covers when I read about children being eaten by lions, alligators and ant-eaters. So she has only given this book 4 stars as it was scary.

The Roald Dahl audiobooks were rerecorded in 2014, and while the cast they used for this is good, no one beats the man who read the version released in the late 80s/early 90s. If you can find those editions, enjoy!

Luimme tämän pöyristyttävän hauskan runoteoksen yhdessä 9-vuotiaan tyttäreni kanssa.

Tyttärelläni on aina ollut melko penseä suhtautuminen runoihin. Niinpä kun esittelin tätä kirjaa hänelle, ei innostusta oikein herunut. Sen jälkeen, kun olin lukenut hänelle ensimmäisen runon isäntänsä syövästä filosofisesta siasta ja lapsia popsivasta krokotiilista, hän kuunteli runoja innoissaan silmät pyöreinä ja välillä tirskuen. Roald Dahl ei petä koskaan, saati Tuomas Nevanlinnan taidokkaat suomennokset!

Elukat-runokirjassa on yhteensä yhdeksän hauskaa, rajoja rikkovaa ja höperöä runoja, jotka on riimitetty täydellisen tarkasti. Koin jatkuvasti kirjaa lukiessani iloa siitä, miten hienoja ja välillä yllättäviä riimipareja löytyy. Huomasin tyttäreni reaktioista myös, miten mukavia elämyksiä runot tuottivat ääneenluettuina.

Tyttäreni luonnehtii kirjaa hauskaksi, riemastuttavaksi ja hupsuksi. Hänen lempirunonsa on Konna ja etana, jossa rupikonna vie pojan mahtavaan seikkailuun Pariisiin. Tytöstäni erityisen hauskaa on se, miten konna pystyy muuttamaan itsensä etanaksi ja sitten linnuksi. Runossa irvaillaan ranskalaisten syömätottumuksilla. Muurahaiskarhusta kertovasta runosta tyttäreni ei taas pitänyt, liekö siksi kun muurahaiskarhu heittäytyy runossa melkoiseksi öykkäriksi, joka pieksee ensin omistajapojan tätipuolen ja uhkaa lopuksi pieksää myös pojan.


Kirjan kuvituksena on tuttuun tapaan Quentin Blaken hassut kuvitukset. Tyttäreni mielestä kuvat ovat hauskoja, värikkäitä ja epätarkkoja. Hän suosittelee runoja kaiken ikäisille, minä suosittelisin ehkä vasta yli 5-vuotiaille.

An over-the-top account of some perfectly ridiculous beasts with exaggerated qualities, and somewhat gory. But an absolutely fun casual read!

Dirty Beasts is a collection of very funny animal poems including: The Pig, The Crocodile, The Lion, The Scorpion, The Ant-eater, The Porcupine, The Cow, The Toad and the Snail, The Tummy Beast.

The poems are mainly all about grisly beasts looking for human blood. Such as, Gocky-Wock the crocodile and Sting-A-Ling the scorpion. Each poem is written in verse with lots of strong descriptions and each is illustrated by Quentin Blake with his usual bold, funny pictures.

This one is a an enjoyable read aimed at 5-7 year olds but I think anyone of any age would enjoy these silly rhymes.