Dirty Beasts is a collection of nine poems about terrible animals who eat children or otherwise cause harm. This was a pretty average collection, the best poems were The Anteater and The Porcupine with the worst being The Tummy Beast. Overall rating is 2 stars. Individual ratings and reviews below.

THE PIG *
THE CROCODILE *
THE LION **
THE SCORPION **
THE ANTEATER ***
THE PORCUPINE ***
THE COW **
THE TOAD AND THE SNAIL ***
THE TUMMY BEAST *

THE PIG *

A pig discovers his purpose for life. Well that's sufficiently disturbing and completely disgusting. I'm surprised more children aren't vegetarians from this imagery. 1 star.

THE CROCODILE *

A crocodile's meal habits concerning what goes well with children are considered. This was okay. Kind of bland and gross. 1 star.

THE LION **

A person offers the lion some food but he doesn't want any of the options offered. Kind of boring but luckily very short. 2 stars.

THE SCORPION **

Children should watch out for a scorpion named Stingaling who likes to hide in beds. This was alright but not really funny. 2 stars.

THE ANTEATER ***

A spoiled boy makes his father buy him a giant anteater and gets more than he bargained for. His aunt comes to visit and the anteater hears ant instead of aunt and gobbles her up. This one was actually kind of funny.

THE PORCUPINE ***

A girl sits down without looking and ends up with a butt full of prickles. Amusing little tale about sitting before you look and where you can go to get help. The mum takes her to the dentist to get the prickles pulled.

THE COW **

A bizarre tale about a cow who can fly and a rude man who gets what he deserves when he calls the cow crazy. This was okay. 2 stars.

THE TOAD AND THE SNAIL ***

A boy is swimming in the pond when he meets a giant toad who offers him a ride. But when they jump to France they run into some trouble. This was alright, slightly funny and extremely bizarre. 3 stars.

THE TUMMY BEAST *

A fat boy blames his eating habits on the person in his belly. Although somewhat funny the idea of having a person in his tummy creating the growling, I lost my interest as soon as the poem calls the boy himself fat. I don't know I think body size should be carefully handled in children's literature. 1 star. ( )

3.5. Good fun and well written. The Pig, The Anteater and The Tummy Beast are among my favourites. If the rest of the rhymes were of the same quality then I would give the book a 5 without hesitation. ( )

Another listen for light relief. There are 9 different stories here, each a different animal. All in rhyme, these are quirky and inventive. At times rather unexpected, at times rather dark, I can see them appealing to the cheeky chappie style child. I enjoyed the turn of phrase and the use of language. ( )

Penso: dai, sono filastrocche per bambini, posso leggerle camminando. E finisce così, con i passanti che mi guardano sconcertati mentre io passo loro davanti, con il libro in mano e sghignazzando ad voce alta.
15 minuti di lettura davvero molto simpatica, con traduzione di Roberto Piumini. E scusate se è poco...

Tanto per rendere l'idea:

"Ma ce n'è ancora un'altra di schifezza:
finora io ne ho detta solo mezza,
giacché ai Francesi, perversione strana,
piace mangiare persino la Rana!
(Sì, forse è meglio prendere un catino,
voleste vomitare un pochettino...)" ( )

I liked the book Dirty Beasts by Roald Dahl for three reasons. First, I liked the writing style of the book. The book was compiled of various poems all about animals. For example, “No animal is half as vile / As Crocky-Wock, the crocodile. / On Saturdays he likes to crunch / Six juicy children for his lunch.” The style of writing was well paced as it was written as a rhyme. The words flowed together smoothly while reading almost like listening to a song. There were no jumps or uneven patterns in the poem allowing for an overall smooth read. Second, I liked the language of the book. The language was descriptive and followed a clear pattern. For example, “Just three of each, three girls, three boys. / He smears the boys (to make them hot) / With mustard from the mustard pot.” The language used followed a pattern where the last word of each sentence rhymed with its previous sentence such as ‘hot’ and ‘pot’. The word choice was also descriptive such as “he smears the boys with mustard from the mustard pot.” This gives the readers a clear visual of what the text is saying as if they were there. Lastly, I liked the illustrations of the book. The illustrations enhanced the story and fit the written text as each poem had its own unique illustrations. For example, the silly poem called “The Crocodile” was about a hungry croc who likes to eat young boys and girls with pots of mustard. The illustration following this poem was of a crocodile with a young boy and girl surrounded by pots of mustard. The illustration was colorful, vibrant, and hand-drawn. It added an overall aesthetic appeal and an extra silly component to the poem. The big idea of this book was to be imaginative and creative, no matter how silly the idea. ( )