The BFG
By: Roald Dahl
Illustrated by: Quentin Blake
ISBN: 9780141311371
Published April 5, 2001 by Puffin Books
Available Format: Hardcover, Paperback, ebook, Audiobook
My Rating: ★★★★★
The BFG. The brown fig gnat? The bright floppy goose? Oh, the Big Friendly Giant! This giant doesn’t seem so friend in the beginning of the story when he is creeping around in the dark and snatches Sophie up and takes her back to his cave in Giant Country. Sophie soon learns, however, that he is quite friendly, much friendlier than his scary giant neighbors who go galloping off every night to gobble up innocent human beans. Sophie is horrified, and vows that she and the BFG will come up with a plan to stop the dastardly deeds of the likes of the Fleshlumpeater and the Bonecruncher. With the help of the Queen of England and the British military, they just might succeed!
If it is by Roald Dahl, it must be a classic, and this one certainly is! My son and I shared this one as our bedtime read for a week and a half. No, I didn’t exactly know what BFG stood for when we began, but we had a lot of fun guessing. This book was just all-around fun. The speech quirks of the BFG had us giggling ourselves silly (well, mostly my son laughing at me for getting tongue-tied). I think his favorite part was the “whizzpoppers” which he wasn’t quite sure about until I explained it—then it was just hilarious.
There were a few slightly scary bits to the story—the giants do eat children after all. Some readers have complained about the stereotyping that goes on, but honestly, it’s all in good fun and most children aren’t even going to pick up on these things. On the other hand, however, a lot of those stereotypes point out some truths that we might want to acknowledge. The giants do not harm their own kind, and the BFG quickly points out that we humans are always hurting and killing one another. It isn’t pretty, but it’s the truth!
Overall, this was a fantastic book for my son and I to share. We have been lucky to come across some really great stories. If you haven’t ever read any of Dahl’s stories, I highly recommend you check them out with your children…or just for yourself!
