No, no, no they're not poisoned, crazy.
Drugged yes, poisoned no. Which is not to say that no birds bite it in this book. They do.
The prevailing themes of this book are :
Look how cool my Pa is! and
We are going to have a bitchin' adventure, pip pip! and
How much trouble can we cause today? Will we get away with it?
Though hardly as popular as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the BFG, this is, I think, just as good. The guy wrote a bazillion books; they couldn't all be in the top ten. It's a quick fun read. You will like it.